Life After Death
by bohr-d
Summary: Recently deceased Kaiba Seto, the newest and reluctant Shinigami, just can't get a break, even in death. When a case involving Egypt & Japan comes into play, it's up to Kaiba & Watari to solve it before things get more complicated than they already are.
1. Welcome to Your Afterlife

The squeal of breaks on the pavement.

The pain of your bones shattering.

Immense pain coursing through your being, too strong to bear.

Numb, that's how you feel as you look across the road, hoping that he's all right.

Tear-filled violet-grey eyes meet your slowly dimming blue ones.

"Nii-sama!"

* * *

You're feeling rather weightless now, speeding through an endless space of darkness. 

Lights blur past you, looking as if they are streaks in the sky leading up to that bright (too bright) one ahead.

But something pulls you to the side.

You find yourself looking down at your little brother, crying his eyes out over the loss of you.

And you can't help but feel that you've let him down again.

But the joyful grin as he spots you washes that feeling away…

"Seto? Is it really you?"

Guilt pools uncomfortably in your stomach as you tell him you have to leave him.

Tears once more, _"Don't leave me! Please!"_

"I'm sorry, Mokuba…"

You're letting him down again.

"Just because I'm dead doesn't mean I'm abandoning you, Mokuba… I'll just be watching over you from afar, I guess."

"Like a guardian angel?"

"Exactly."

The warmth of that heaven-sent breeze lifts your spirit into the air. Up to what awaits you in the great beyond.

But, oh, Kaiba Seto… it's not going to be anything you'll be expecting.

For I, Enma-Daioh, Lord of Hades, have bigger plans for you.

Whether you like it or not.

Life After Death  
Chapter One: Welcome to Your Afterlife  
-samuraiduck27

Life after death, Kaiba Seto mused, was not supposed to be like this. Or, at least, that's what every major religion preached.

'Unless I'm hallucinating and I didn't really die…'

The recently deceased brunette scowled as he found himself surrounded by darkness, only knowing that he was in a room by the clicking of his shoes on the floor beneath him. During all of his living life, he was of the idea that when one died, he or she would go to the afterlife and do whatever dead people did when they bit the dust. Not to say that he didn't believe in a Heaven or a Hell, but the image of a sinner working a spit in Hell and burning for eternity didn't fit the list of plausible outcomes in his mind.

Suddenly, a blinding light appeared in the middle of the room. Seto shielded his eyes from the momentary blindness as his eyes adjusted to the new source of lighting. There was a small stool underneath the light, and he could vaguely make out a long table with several seated figures seated at it a little ways off from the stool. It reminded him faintly of an interrogation room in black and white films, and he wasn't very surprised when a booming voice asked him to sit.

Frowning at that fact that he, the 'Great Kaiba Seto', was being ordered to sit down, he grudgingly did. He wanted answers, after all, and it wouldn't do to make his questioners angry with him and reluctant to give any information to him.

"State your name for the record, please." The same booming voice commanded, and Kaiba realized that it was the one sitting off to his left that was talking to him.

He glared in that direction through the darkness, "Kaiba Seto. And what the hell is all this?"

His question was ignored as the questioner continued, "Cause of death?"

Growling at being ignored, the brunette hissed out: "Car accident."

A softer, rather sympathetic voice sounded from Kaiba's right, "Protecting your younger brother, one Kaiba Mokuba, correct?"

Kaiba blinked at this new voice and the fact that they had known about the circumstances of his early death. "Hai," he answered soberly, remembering his little brother's heartbroken look.

There was some small murmuring amongst the figures around him. Kaiba tapped his foot impatiently.

"You… visited your brother before you arrived here, did you not?" asked that same sympathetic voice from before.

"Yes, though I still fail to see what that has to do with whatever this whole interrogation is," was the sharp retort.

Once again, the blue-eyed brunette was ignored as the questioning continued. Kaiba was reaching his last nerve and his already thin patience was wearing thin.

"What would you say, if say… you were given a chance to skip Final Judgement for the time being and take a rather… interesting opportunity, Kaiba-san?"

An eyebrow peaked upward in interest, "Go on."

"You are quite the interesting individual, Kaiba-san, if I may say so myself," a third voice added, this time from Kaiba's right. "During your regretfully short mortal life, you had the intellect to head one of the largest corporations in the world at the age of sixteen, as well as an indomitable will and a strong sense of perseverance. Not to mention, you have been in contact with the supernatural and come out relatively unharmed. Not many can say the same. Meifu could really use a man of your skills."

It is unnecessary to say that Kaiba's already overly large ego enjoyed the praise, but of course he was wary of such a proposition. Remembering the promise he made to his otouto, Kaiba spoke.

"What about Mokuba? I promised I would look after him."

Apparently, his questioners weren't prepared for such a remark. Usually, when a soul with spiritual attachment to the mortal plane was offered a job working for Enma-Daioh, the offer was quickly taken.

"Well… you would be traveling back to Earth quite frequently… and—"

"That _wasn't_ what I was asking. I want to know if taking this job will interfere with my watching over my little brother." Kaiba interrupted, ice blue eyes glaring deeply in the direction of the questioner.

A smooth chuckle drifted across the room. Through the dim lighting, Kaiba could almost make out the tensing of the bodies seated in front of him as they all turned around and looked up towards something he himself could not see. A deep voice spoke- each syllable of his voice seeming to resonate through Kaiba's very being.

Kaiba Seto was not a man who could be intimidated easily. But even he felt a shiver of hesitation and apprehension as he was spoken to.

"You would give up an opportunity many men would covet… all to watch over a boy whose life is out of your hands now?"

The first questioner spoke before Kaiba could answer, "S-sire! You don't need to—"

"Silence. You are not the one being addressed."

_''Sire?' Who the hell is this guy?' _Kaiba thought, before answering.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I? I have never broken a promise to Mokuba, and I am not going to let a trivial matter such as death stop me from doing so."

The man called Sire chuckled, "My, we have a temper, don't we. As to answer your previous question, Kaiba Seto, the answer is no. The job I am offering you would require you to be quite busy, with little time to watch over your brother. Not to mention that traveling between planes of existence without strict allowance is prohibited. I am afraid you made a promise that, this time, you won't be able to keep."

Blue eyes raised a challenging glare, "Then I refuse. Send me to hell, or wherever you're assigning me to go."

"I am afraid I can't do that."

Kaiba stood up suddenly, knocking over the small chair as he did so, "And why the hell not? This is my afterlife, and I don't want to be some damn lackey doing whatever job you fools want to assign me to do! I am Kaiba Seto, and no one dictates my life, whether I'm dead or not!"

One of the questioners stood up and hissed at Kaiba, "Do you have _any_ idea who you are talking to, Kaiba-san?"

"No, and I'm afraid I don't give a damn," was the scoffed reply.

Slight anger could be heard lacing 'Sire's' tone as his booming voice spoke, "I am Enma-Daioh, and what I say is law. You, Kaiba Seto, have no choice in the matter. You have been hand chosen to work for me, whether you wish to or not."

"I refuse, Enma-_sama_."

Enma glared at the mocking respect. Never had such a potential candidate treated him with such disrespect. "All this fuss over a silly little promise. Such a bright talent and mind going to waste over some trifle little matter. I won't have it."

Enma's hand lashed out, and with it came a wave of power that launched the prideful brunette about twenty feet in the air and immobilizing him.

"What… the…?"

"If all it is, is nothing but a simple promise holding you back, Kaiba Seto, then it would be best for you to forget that it ever happened."

Kaiba's body burned with a fierce white glow, and though he tried to conceal it, a small, sharp cry of pain released through his lips. A minute later, Kaiba's unconscious body was lowered to the ground. Enma smirked in satisfaction and turned to leave. The questioners looked on in horror, wondering vaguely what was so special about this spirit that Enma himself was forced to inflict his power upon him.

"E-Enma-sama?" one called out.

The Lord of Hades turned his head, "Summon Konoe-san. Tell him I request an audience with him about his new recruit."

"B-But, Sire… he…"

"The boy will be fine. I wiped his memories. He has no recollection of his brother, nor most of his past life. Give him a new last name, and send him off to be tested for any side-effects," a shadow of a smirk crossed his face, "I believe I may have been a bit harsh with my new Shinigami."

* * *

A/N: Notes at the end this time. Well, this is a rather crack!fic idea that wormed its way into my head when I realized that the English dub voice actors for Yami no Matsuei's Watari and Tsuzuki were the same English voice actors for Yu-Gi-Oh!'s own Kaiba and Atem/Yami. Suddenly, I wanted to see a crossover of the two series, but alas… in that area I found none. (angsts) 

Therefore I took it upon myself to write one. And as far as inspiration goes, I decided to make this a direct sequel to my one-shot, "Mon Ange de Gardien", which deals with Seto's death and promise to Mokuba. My plot bunnies for this reappeared after a month-long break after I turned in afore-mentioned fic for an English assignment and have yet to leave me.

And as I got into developing a plot for this, it became less 'crack!fic' material and more drama/actually-having-a-decent-reason-for-being-a-crossover. Wow.

So please review; though I doubt many will because of the oddity of this fandom. (Cheers for this being the first ever YnM and YGO x-over on fanfiction dot net.)

Ja ne, minna-san!

Your humble authoress and resident Kaiba and Watari fangirl,  
SD27


	2. A New Recruit

A/N: Well, here's the second chapter! Time for our favorite shinigami to meet our infamous bad-tempered CEO. It is just me, or do Seto and Tatsumi seem as if they would get along quite well…?

And as for the time-line for this fic, it takes place after the KC Grand Prix in Yu-Gi-Oh and err… sometime well after the Kyoto arc in the anime for Yami no Matsuei. I'd rather go by manga canon… but seeing as someone who shall remain nameless (coughPKcough) likes skipping around volumes in her manga shopping… I haven't read a lot of it yet. And manga summaries online can only do so much… (cue sighing)

Sad to say, but this chapter was quite reluctant to come forth. I was never any good with introduction chapters, after all…

DISCLAIMER: I do not own either Yami no Matsuei nor do I own Yu-Gi-Oh! If I did, Watari-san would get a helluva lot more screen time and Seto would kick Yami/Yuugi/whoever the blasted kid is at the time every damn duel. 'Cuz that's the way it's supposed to be. :D

* * *

_"So you don't care about destroying an innocent soul?"  
"As president of a major corporation, I have to do that everyday."  
-Dartz and Kaiba, Yu-Gi-Oh! - "The Duel with Dartz" (Waking the Dragons/DOMA arc).

* * *

_

Life After Death  
Chapter Two: A New Recruit  
samuraiduck27

**Two Weeks Later…**

Tsuzuki Asato was late for work. This was not an unusual circumstance, as one would think, seeing as the brunette man was usually always so. But unlike most mornings, Tsuzuki was actually rushing to try to make it on time. There could be a few reasons for this, other than the man actually wanting to get into work on time, and by simple process of elimination it could be narrowed down to two:

One, a certain Tatsumi Seiichirou was finally dead serious about docking his pay if he was late one more time.

Or two, the board meeting that Tsuzuki was currently about to miss was to introduce a new shinigami. New recruits were few and far between, and Tsuzuki was anxious to meet him or her.

_'Oh boy… Tatsumi's gonna have my head for this!' _Tsuzuki moaned internally, racing up the steps of Meifu's JuOhCho **(1)** building, oddly colored violet eyes widening as he almost ran into a few people,_ 'How am I supposed to afford my sweets if he docks my pay? …Not to mention Hisoka'll be cross with me again…'_

Tsuzuki moaned internally, racing up the steps of Meifu's JuOhCho building, oddly colored violet eyes widening as he almost ran into a few people, 

Tsuzuki Asato was a shinigami, a god (or in this case, guardian) of death, who worked in the Shokan Division **(2)** of Meifu, which in laymen's terms could be called Purgatory. With his friendly, joking personality, lanky and thin frame, as well as messy appearance, no one would expect the brunette to hold such a high position in the afterlife, much less be considered the most powerful shinigami that Meifu currently employed.

In the Shokan Division, shinigami worked in pairs. Tsuzuki's partner, one Kurosaki Hisoka, was a highly serious individual who had been killed at the young age of sixteen. His bright, bottle green eyes were seemingly stuck in 'glare-mode'; usually directed towards his lazy, sugar-obsessed partner. Each shinigami had some kind of special power, or talent, and Hisoka's happened to be empathy, which helped him sense the feelings and emotions of others. Too bad Tsuzuki couldn't be the one with this talent, seeing as he never knew when to back off when Hisoka was in one of his moods.

Stumbling into the meeting room, Tsuzuki received one of Hisoka's patented 'Tsuzuki you baka' glares from his partner. The other four occupants stared at the brunette, but shrugged as if it was nothing.

It seemed that the meeting was already under way as another brunette man but with striking blue eyes was standing at the front of the room, glaring somewhat exasperatedly at the interruption.

"Gomen… for being late… again." Tsuzuki panted, taking a seat next to Hisoka.

The blue-eyed man sighed and pushed his glasses up a bit, "Luckily for you, Tsuzuki-san, we were just about to begin."

Tsuzuki gave an inner jump for joy.

"But seeing as you were still late for work, I am docking your pay by twenty percent."

"What? Tatsumi! I said I was sorry! I promise it won't happen again!" Tsuzuki cried, eyes welling up in an impression of a kicked puppy. Tatsumi on the other hand gave the violet-eyed man a small smirk.

Hisoka sighed and nudged his partner with his elbow, "Shut up, baka. You know he never enforces it."

Tatsumi coughed, "Ahem, if we could please get back to the meeting, gentlemen?"

Tsuzuki's whimpering and muttering ceased and all eyes returned to Tatsumi, "As you know, the Shokan Division is receiving a new recruit, hand picked by Emna-Daioh himself. He will be Watari-san's new partner, as he has gone far too long without one, even though that Block is rather quiet," here Tatsumi stopped and looked around the room, "And just _where_ is Watari-san this morning?"

"Probably still in his lab," Chief Konoe, a man who looked to be in about his mid sixties or so as well as the division's most senior resident, replied.

Tatsumi muttered something along the lines of, "Probably blew up the memo…" under his breath as he continued.

"Chief Konoe had an audience with Enma-Daioh earlier this week, and learned about our new recruit. Chief?"

Konoe took Tatsumi's place at the head of the room and began to speak, pulling out a file folder and passing it to Hisoka, who briefly glanced at the cover sheet and passed it on to Tsuzuki. Tsuzuki took his time looking over the front cover, noting that there was no picture of their new arrival, nor was there a name. Frowning, Tsuzuki asked about it.

"Apparently, our new arrival has a few memory problems, not unlike some people who can't remember when a board meeting starts..." this was aimed at Tsuzuki and the ever absent Watari. "It seems his death caused some psychological trauma causing him to having a hard time remembering a few things, or so Enma-Daioh has told me. His name though, is Kyouji **(3)** Seto, and he will be joining us later today," Konoe turned to Hisoka, a small smile on his face, "He's about your age, Kurosaki, and from what that file says, he's got about the same temperament as you do."

Figuring that to be an underhanded complement, Hisoka sighed and didn't comment on it. Hopefully, though, to him this meant that there would be someone around who wouldn't persist to annoy him like the overly hyper and annoying Tsuzuki and the equally exasperating Watari would.

"So… who'll be the one to inform Watari that he has to share his lab?" Konoe asked. No one volunteered. The grey-haired man turned to Tatsumi and smiled, "Well, since he usually comes to you, begging for research funding every morning, I guess we'll leave that up to you, Tatsumi."

The blue-eyed man could only sigh in resignation.

* * *

The meeting adjourned soon after, and the shinigami went their respective ways. Tatsumi went to his office, looking forward to finding the Shokan Division's pay roster and making a few alterations concerning the pay status of one Tsuzuki Asato. 

'Not serious, am I? Well… he'll see how serious I am once he finds out he won't be able to afford his Cinnapons every morning.'

Now, Tatsumi Seiichirou was indeed a shinigami like Hisoka and Tsuzuki, but unlike the pair, he didn't go out on missions very often, if at all. Tatsumi was Tsuzuki's former partner, but because of difficulties with the violet-eyed man, he opted for the position of being the Shokan Division's secretary, in charge of the budget and pay of the employees. Which was a bad thing for the rest of the division as Tatsumi was very miserly and very cheap. Once Tatsumi's mind was made up on a matter concerning the budget, it was hard to waver it. Most of them were frightened that if they angered Tatsumi enough, the man would send a horde of shadows after them, as Tatsumi was a Kagetsukai, or Shadow User, and was irritated easily. There were few that would risk trying to persuade him otherwise on matters concerning money, and only one had the gall to come in daily to haggle over it.

His name was Watari Yutaka.

"Knock, knock, Tatsumi!" a cheerful voice rang as Tatsumi's door opened, revealing a man in probably his mid-twenties with long blonde hair held back by an orange ribbon and friendly amber-colored eyes. He strode confidently into Tatsumi's office, clutching a folder filled with papers that looked as if they were just stuffed in there.

Tatsumi mentally thought of him as a walking headache. Watari was almost a big of a pain in the butt as Tsuzuki was.

"Watari-san." Tatsumi greeted, "Why weren't you at the board meeting this morning?"

The man blinked, his expression all but saying, "we had a board meeting?".

"I take it you lost the memo I sent out yesterday." Tatsumi sighed and returned to the various reports lying on his desk, all of them waiting to be looked over and then archived.

"Umm… hai." Watari said sheepishly, throwing his folder on top of Tatsumi's desk and smiling slightly as the brunette frowned, "But I was in the middle of an experiment, you know, and I guess it must have slipped my mind! Oh by the way, I'm afraid I do need some—"

"No."

Watari's smile turned into a pout, "But you never even let me finish!"

"You're going to ask for funding for your experiments, Watari-san. And the answer, as per usual, will be no."

"Waaah! You're mean, Tatsumi."

"So I've been told," was the dry reply, "Now if you'd take a seat, I have some things to go over with you."

Shrugging, the scientist sat down in a chair across from Tatsumi's desk. He absently wondered what Tatsumi wanted to talk about; it couldn't be about any of his experiments… he hadn't tampered with the coffee or blown anything up recently.

"Sooo… what did you need to tell me, hmm?"

"We're receiving a new recruit sometime this afternoon. He—"

Watari smiled and clapped his hands, "Ooh, now that's news! I assume that was what this morning's meeting was about?"

Tatsumi glared at the genki scientist, "As I was saying, Watari-san, he will be working with you. In other words, he will be your new partner and you will have to share your lab with him."

He blinked owlishly, not expecting this. "What? You mean I'm getting a partner? But, I've worked a few decades without one fine…"

"Enma-Daioh's orders, I'm afraid. Looks like even you aren't above the law of two shinigami per Sector."

Watari shrugged, "I guess it'll be fine. …But why am I sharing my lab? This new recruit, he's not a scientist, is he?"

Tatsumi shook his head in the negative, "No, but he is a technological genius… or so his file says. His name is Kyouji Seto, but other than his physical statistics, I really don't know much else."

Looking up from Seto's file, Tatsumi noticed that Watari had a small smirk on his face and the Secretary could just hear the gears in the scientist's head moving.

"Watari-san, I do have some ground rules for you," Tatsumi said, causing golden-brown eyes to snap to him in curiosity, "You will not use Kyouji as a test subject for any of your ridiculous potions or experiments."

"But Tatsumi…" Watari huffed, crossing his arms over his chest, "You just have to go take away all my fun, don't you."

Slightly amused blue eyes raised up to meet Watari's sulking face, "Hai. And any reports of such activity will result in funding to your department getting docked or taken away completely."

The sulk turned into a glare. Tatsumi chuckled slightly, "At least give the kid a few days to get used to the place… and if I catch you spiking the coffee pot again, the consequences still stand."

Watari waved off the threat, "Fine, fine, fine. Now, speaking of funding…"

"I thought I said no."

"Oh, come on!"

* * *

Seto fingered his new outfit: a pair of simple black slacks and a white button-up dress shirt with a black tie resting across it. A deep blue duster sat on a chair nearby, but he didn't put it on. The medical examiners gave him the clothes and told him to dress, as he was scheduled to leave shortly. 

As he looked at himself in the mirror, he couldn't help but feel as if the outfit was missing something. His neck felt oddly light, and the outfit looked out of place on his form.

_'I feel as if I should be wearing something… flashier,' _the brunette thought, running his hand through his hair as he sighed. The last two weeks had the brunette dressed in casual wear: jeans and t-shirts mostly. And to him, those were far more awkward than what he was dressing himself in now.

The doctors and examiners had told him that he had some sort of head injury when he died that caused him to forget some things that had happened in his mortal life. Hell, he hadn't even remembered his own name when he finally woke up. Kyouji Seto, that was his name. Age seventeen at death, born and raised right outside of Domino City, Japan. Smart enough to skip a grade or two in school, and worked at a computer company for a part-time job. A pretty average life ruined by a dumb car accident all because he dropped his book-bag in the middle of the road. He remembered that much. The whole shinigami mess had been explained to him, and for the most part he understood what was going on.

But somehow, it all just felt _off_ in his mind.

"Maybe it's just because I'm dead now… this is going to take a lot of getting used to." He muttered to himself, picking up the duster from the chair and putting it on. It flared out behind him as he walked, and a smirk appeared on his face.

He looked at his reflection in the mirror in approval. "Now that's more like it."

* * *

One of Enma-Daioh's lackeys escorted Seto to the entrance hall of JuChoOh, where he was introduced to a grey-haired man who gave him a small, friendly smile. 

"So you must be Kyouji, eh? I was wondering when you'd show up," he asked, looking up into Seto's deep blue eyes, seemingly saying to him 'get on with it, will you please?'

"Hai. And you are?" Seto replied; ignoring the frown he was receiving from the man.

"Chief Konoe of the Shokan Division. I'm your new boss."

"Aah. Shall we be going, then? No offense to Enma-sama's staff, but they are neither the most hospitable nor competent of workers. They should be replaced."

Konoe was suddenly reminded of Tatsumi and wondered what he had gotten himself into with this recruit of his. Not only did the boy remind him attitude-wise already of the cold, aloof secretary, but they could pass for one another with the same sharp blue eyes and dark brown hair. Standing next to each other, they would probably be roughly the same height as well.

Seto's slightly annoyed voice broke Konoe's train of thought. "If you're done staring at me, Konoe-san, I believe you were going to show me my new place of employment sometime this decade."

"Err… of course. This way, Kyouji, let's get you situated."

* * *

Seto's first thoughts upon meeting his co-workers were ones of surprise and slight disgust. From what he was told, the position of being a shinigami of Meifu was a high honour given to those with high spiritual power and potential. He was expecting to meet a group of focused, determined individuals. What he met, however, was a motley crew made up of adolescents, sweet-obsessed workers, and a pair of girls who seemed driven to dress him up in a dress within the first five minutes of walking through the division's door. 

'_And I haven't even met them all yet… Enma help me._' Seto thought dismally as he was introduced to Tsuzuki and Hisoka. He had, quite literally, run into Terazuma in the hallway, and already the two were rather on bad sides with one another. Wakaba however had managed to calm the shinigami down, and introduced herself as well.

"So you're Watari's new partner! Nice to meet you, I'm Tsuzuki Asato, shinigami of the Kyushu sector!"

"…Kurosaki Hisoka of the same."

Seto concluded that Tsuzuki was friendly enough… but much too friendly for his tastes. It reminded him of someone he knew… but he just couldn't place it at the moment. Hisoka was labeled in his mind as one of those antisocial teenage types. He suspected that they might get along fairly better than he would with Tsuzuki. The man was bordering on annoying.

Seto nodded to them both, "Kyouji Seto."

Tsuzuki turned to Konoe, "Hey, Chief! I'll go show him around, okay? You can get back to work and all."

The man frowned at the violet-eyed shinigami but shrugged, "I know this is a ploy to get out of doing your work, Tsuzuki… but for once I really don't give a damn. You better just hope that Tatsumi doesn't figure it out. I'm not bailing you out if he starts ripping into you."

"Yatta!" cried the brunette, totally missing Konoe's warning, "All right, Seto, let's go find Watari and the others."

The brunette twitched slightly at the informal use of his name as well as the arm that was suddenly swung over his shoulder in a friendly gesture. He shrugged off the offending arm; "I would prefer you called me Kyouji, if you don't mind. And please, refrain from… doing whatever that hell that was you just did now."

Tsuzuki frowned, while Hisoka smirked slightly, "You know… he reminds me a lot of Tatsumi-san, Tsuzuki." Hisoka said, watching as Tsuzuki groaned and nodded his head in approval.

"You need to lighten up, Se— I mean, Kyouji. You're gonna turn out like Hisoka here if you don't— oof. Itai! Hisoka, that hurt!"

"You idiot… now are you going to show him around or not?"

Seto had stood there while this exchange went on, tapping his foot impatiently as he waited. His temper was running thin as is, and he was going to just go try to find his way on his own if need be if this didn't stop soon.

"Excuse my partner, he has a one-track mind most of the time. If it's not ways to get out of working, then it's snack food." Hisoka said, sighing at Tsuzuki.

"It's all right, Kurosaki-kun. He reminds me of someone I once knew." Seto replied. The 'but I don't remember who it was…' he neglected to add.

Tsuzuki was in a better mood as they got going, and Seto was first introduced to Tatsumi when the three came across him on their way to Watari's lab.

"Oh! Tatsumi! Did you meet the new guy yet?" Tsuzuki asked upon sighting the secretary. Seto watched slightly amused as Tatsumi's shoulders tensed when Tsuzuki called his named from across the hall.

"No, I'm afraid I did not." Tatsumi replied, turning identically hued eyes to Seto, "I'm Tatsumi Seiichirou, Secretary of the Shokan Division. Pleasure to meet you." He said, giving a polite yet still friendly smile to Seto.

A smirk graced Seto's face, "Kyouji Seto. So you're the one everyone keeps saying I remind them of. Yet I wonder… is that a good or bad thing?"

Tsuzuki started chuckling nervously as Tatsumi's steely glare focused on him; the brunette took Seto by the wrist and began to drag him away, all the while muttering something about jokes and the like. They turned the corner, and Tsuzuki let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding.

Seto yanked his arm out of Tsuzuki's hold, "What was that for?"

"Tatsumi's… scary, I guess you could say. Y'know how I said earlier that all the shinigami have special abilities?"

"…This was never mentioned. And where did Kurosaki-kun go?"

Tsuzuki looked around for his fair-haired partner, but didn't see him anywhere, "Anou… I dunno. But anyways, each shinigami has some sort of special ability… a supernatural one. Hisoka for instance, is an empath, which—"

"Which means he can tell the feelings of others," Seto finished, now listening to Tsuzuki intently, "Interesting."

"Yeah. Well, you see… Tatsumi's a Kagetsukai, which means he's got control over the shadows. He's also not my biggest fan as of late, and I can kinda see the shadows in the corner start to waver when I get him ticked off at me."

Seto nodded at this new information, "And so, I just made the situation a bit worse."

Tsuzuki nodded, "But that's okay. The worse he'll do is just dock my paycheck probably… again."

"What's… your special power, Tsuzuki-san?"

The violet-eyed man blinked, "Me? Oh, well… I guess it's my ability to summon Shikigami **(4)**. Twelve of them, actually. And I'm really good at Fuda magic too."

Seto, having heard about Shikigami from the doctors when it was slightly mentioned during his examination, was impressed that the seemingly incompetent man in front of him could be capable of all that power. A slight new respect grew for the shinigami in Seto's mind.

"Are you really interested in all this?" Tsuzuki asked, to which Seto nodded, "Well, what about you? What can you do?"

Seto frowned and crossed his arms, not saying anything. Tsuzuki blinked and sighed, "Or you could not tell me and totally pull a Hisoka on me… well, we better get going; Watari's lab is just up ahead."

* * *

Back in the corridor that Tsuzuki and Seto had fled from, Tatsumi was questioning the abandoned Hisoka on the newest addition to the Shokan Division. 

"He's… different, that's for sure," was Hisoka's opinion of him.

Tatsumi looked interested, "How so, Kurosaki? All I got from him was that he's a bit arrogant. Then again, I only got to talk to him for all of thirty seconds."

"He's guarded. Quite well. I sensed slight amounts of hostility, and a bit of confusion earlier, but he's guarded again."

"You mean his emotions?"

"Hai. I was expecting a sudden onslaught from him, since he's new and doesn't know about my empathy. I had extra barriers up, but… I could barely feel any hint of emotion from him except what I already mentioned."

Tatsumi nodded, "It might be an after-effect from the memory restoration Enma-Daioh's doctors did on him. Chief Konoe said that the boy couldn't even remember his own name when he got here." Shrugging, Tatsumi started to walk off, probably back to his office when Hisoka's slightly amused voice stopped him.

"I kind of feel bad for Watari-san…" the green-eyed boy began, making Tatsumi's eyebrows raise in question, "Kyouji-kun didn't take too well to Tsuzuki's friendly welcome, and I could tell that Tsuzuki was holding back in order to not scare him off."

This drew a chuckle out of the stoic secretary; "Well… it'll be interesting to see how Watari-san and Kyouji get along, won't it?"

* * *

**(1) Meifu's JuOhCho Building: In the dub, this is called the Ministry of Hades. Basically, it's Enma-Daioh's center of command, where all Japan's otherworldly business is conducted. Well, most of it, at least.**

(2) Shokan Division: Another term that the dub changes. This is the Summons Section of the Judgement Bureau, where the Shinigami are employed.

(3) Seto's new last name: For plot reasons, Seto was given a new last name by Enma-Daioh/his lackeys. I had a hard time deciding between "Kyouji" and "Kouryou" for this one, and I didn't even dare contemplating changing Seto's first name. But anyways, "Kyouji" I found out from a Japanese dictionary means "pride", which is perfect for our once-CEO, ne? And for those who want to know, the other choice (at least, this particular kanji of it) means "the dragon which has already ascended to the heavens". Which of course I liked better… but it didn't really have that ring to it. D:

(4) Shikigami: For those not all that familiar with Yami no Matsuei, Shikigami are spiritual creatures that a select few Shinigami can summon. Tsuzuki, however a bumbling idiot he may seem, can call upon twelve of the strongest Shikigami.

A/N: Bwahaha… somewhat cliffhanger. Go me. Well, actually, I'm still working on how I want the initial meeting between Watari and Seto to go sooooooo… yeah. So why don't you go click that little button at the bottom and leave me a lovely review, eh? Please?

Ja ne, minna-san!  
SD27


	3. The Odd Couple

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, guys! Even though there haven't been many, and that'd usually get me discouraged by now, I get that this is a new fandom. And hey! This is a story I am growing to love. Time for Watari to meet his partner and vice-versa. (cackles)

And big thanks to my good buddy PK13, who FINALLY went and bought the rest of the YnM manga she was missing up to volume 7 so I could read it. (love) Now get the last four volumes. :P

DISCLAIMER: …Do I look like Yoko Matsushita or Kazuki Takahashi to you? Hmm? Well? No? Then I don't own Yami no Matsuei or Yu-Gi-Oh!. Stop. Rubbing. It. In. My. Face.

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"'_You who took your own lives… deal with death to atone for your death.' A never-ending maze... that is our prison." – Izumi Lio, Full Moon o Sagashite, Volume II. (Arina Tanemura)._

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_Life After Death  
__Chapter Three: The 'Odd Couple'  
__-samuraiduck27_

"Well, come on Kyouji! What are you waiting for?" Tsuzuki asked as the two stopped in front of the laboratory doors, Seto refusing to budge one inch more, despite the violet-eyed man's pushing.

Seto refrained from rolling his eyes and pointed to the large, highlighter yellow sign posted on the door in front of them.

'WARNING: Experiment in process. Do not enter.' It read.

Tsuzuki shrugged, "Watari always has that sign up… and I bet he's not working on anything hazardous at the moment any—"

Both brunettes turned towards the door suddenly as a muffled yell of "Oh, damn it!" was heard. Tsuzuki shoved Seto down on the ground before diving as well just seconds before a good size explosion occurred. The windows of the lab shook violently before shattering, glass spilling over the two shinigamis' backs. Smoke began pouring out into the hallway, and through the ringing in his ears, Seto could distantly hear a smoke alarm going off.

"What the hell was that?" barked Seto, getting up and glaring daggers at Tsuzuki, probably because the man had just shoved him disgracefully onto the ground.

The man in question ignored Seto for the moment, getting up swiftly and brushing off the glass before barging into the lab. "Watari! Watari, are you okay?"

Frowning, Seto got up as well and followed Tsuzuki. The smoke was still somewhat thick in the room, and the blue-eyed teen could just make out Tsuzuki's form bending over someone else in a corner of the laboratory. Seto walked over to them.

'_I knew that sign was up for good reason.'_ he thought, looking down at the two on the floor, _'So this is my new partner…'_

"Hey Watari, you all right? That was some explosion." Tsuzuki said, shaking his friend's soot covered shoulder.

Watari looked up at Tsuzuki, still somewhat dazed, "…Tsuzuki? What? Oh, right… explosion…" the blonde looked around the room, "…Everything's blurry. Where are my glasses? Oh, I hope they didn't get destroyed!"

"Here."

Golden-brown eyes peered up curiously at the slightly blurry figure in front of him, holding out what seemed to be a pair of glasses. Watari smiled, "Erm… thank you!"

"No problem." Seto replied, shrugging, "But I'd think you'd like to know that your lab table is on fire."

Now that got the scientist's attention pretty darn fast. Watari practically flew into motion, jumping up and grabbing a fire extinguisher from the wall and quickly smothering the flames threatening to engulf his table, notes, and computer. Once the danger was over, the blonde moaned pitifully as he held up a pile of scorched and ruined papers.

"My notes… now I'll have to start all over again!"

Tsuzuki clapped his hand on Watari's shoulder, "It's okay… at least your lab's still in err… mostly one piece!"

Seto, off to the side, snorted at Tsuzuki's rather pathetic attempt at consolation, "Shouldn't the emergency sprinklers have gone off?"

"They're malfunctioning. Result of his last mishap." Tsuzuki supplied, turning to look at Seto, before his gaze flickered to the doorway and violet eyes widened considerably. "Umm… Watari. Watari!" he squeaked nervously, pulling on the blonde's formerly white lab-coat.

"What is it, Tsuzuki…"

A certain Secretary was standing in the doorway, a livid look upon his face.

"Oh no… Tatsumi, I can explain!"

Seto smirked in slight amusement as Tatsumi's steely blue glare was fixed upon the nervous, soot-covered, disheveled scientist and Watari flinched slightly at the intensity of it. "You had better explain it, Watari-san. This is the third time this month you've had a major explosion, and you've went and destroyed the windows again! I've just about had it with you, I swear I don't know why I continue to give you funding…"

Watari sighed, "Well, for once I was actually working on something Bon wanted me to work on… I stepped away for one moment, and the next thing I know, my potion was overflowing and it err… exploded?"

"No, really. Kind of hard not to notice that." Seto quipped sarcastically from his corner of the room.

The other three shinigami turned to face him, seeming to have forgotten that their new recruit was in the lab with them. Watari looked slightly confused, "Anou… I don't believe we've met. Who are you?"

Seto went to reply, but an overly exuberant Tsuzuki answered for him, making the blue-eyed teen frown. "Oh! Watari, this is Kyouji, your new partner! I was showing him around before you went and blew up your lab again…"

"So you're my new partner," Watari said, looking Seto up and down before smiling at him, "Welcome to Meifu! I'm Watari Yutaka, resident scientist and medic."

Seto just knew somehow, deep down, that this man in front of him would be cause of many a migraine. But he bowed slightly to the man in front of him, "Kyouji Seto. I look forward to working with you."

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That was a month ago. And even though Seto had only been working with the scientist for that short of a time, he had already wondered a few dozen times what exactly he had inhaled when he had said he would be looking forward to working with Watari. The genki blonde had already tested his patience to the limits with the frequent spiking of his drinks when Seto refused to be a lab rat for various potions, constant explosions of the lab, and his habit of always, _always_ being able to get on Seto's nerves without seeming to even try.

Therefore, when the Meifu's library was reopened** (1), **the brunette took to spending a great deal of time in there as opposed to staying in the laboratory that he and Watari shared. The Kinki area was rather quiet, after all, and without paperwork, missions, or –in Watari's case- experiments to work on, what else was there to do but read?

"Kyouji? Could you give us a hand over here?"

Seto looked up from a book on demonology and nodded at the younger of the Gushoshin twins. "What do you need my help with?" he asked as the bird-god let him over to the computers where he and his elder twin were working.

"It's been lagging like you wouldn't believe, and it keeps kicking me off of the server every ten minutes or so. I don't know what's with it, it's practically brand new." Younger Gushoshin told Seto, who sat down at the computer and began to mess with various programs and applications.

While Watari was the undisputed mechanical and research genius of the Shokan Division, Seto had quickly earned a reputation of being a quick and capable computer whiz. After all, technology had become quite advanced since the 1970s, when Watari had died. And although the blonde was a quick study and was adept at repairing the Shokan Division's computers when they had their malfunctions, Seto, who had lived almost his whole life surrounded by technology, was more familiar with the machines.

Seto was also good at intimidation, and when it failed him (as it had a tendency to do around Watari and Tatsumi…), manipulation was another talent of his. Employing both these tactics had earned Seto a nice, brand new laptop from the Gushoshins' library.

"There. Finished." Seto said a few minutes later, shutting down his work before rebooting the machine, "It should be fine now. You had your server on a timer without knowing it."

The god nodded, taking his seat back at the computer desk, "Arigatou, Kyouji. How's your laptop working for you, by the way?"

Seto shrugged, "I haven't really had much to use it for other than organizing Watari-san's mess of a filing system. It's just pathetic."

As if conversing about the man was a sort of summons, Watari walked through the doors at that moment, soot-covered, frazzled-looking, and altogether seeming as if he wanted to be anywhere else at that moment.

"Watari-san?" Older Gushoshin greeted, puzzled at the man's appearance and the fact he seemed to be clutching something bulky and somewhat… melted… to his chest.

Seto raised an eyebrow as his partner approached him. Watari bowed low and held out the charred, slightly melted object to Seto, saying, "I'm sorry, Kid. It was an accident, I swear!" before hightailing it out of the library as fast as he could.

Blinking confusedly, the three occupants of the room looked down at the object sitting in Seto's hands. The brunette frowned, turning it over in his hands, wondering what exactly it was that the blonde had given him. Only when he saw the unscathed disk drive on the side of the hunk of metal did he realize what exactly Watari had destroyed.

"Watari-san…" Seto growled, eye almost twitching as he handed his now useless laptop over to one of the Gushoshin before taking a deep breath and quickly following after his partner.

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**_The Shrine of the Next World, Egypt, Chijou_** **(2)**.

The Ceremonial Duel had been completed.

And Atemu, the Nameless Pharaoh, the King of Games, had lost.

Yuugi watched with tears in his eyes as his other half approached the Door to the Next World. Standing in front of the door, the spirit raised his head and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Atemu!"

The Eye of Horus on the wall began to glow, and slowly the Door opened, bright, white light pouring into the dark stone shrine. Atemu stepped forward, it was his time to go.

Time to leave behind his friends, his rivals, and his enemies in this world that he was not meant to stay in.

Yuugi had won, after all… and it showed that the two were ready to part.

'_Yuugi… I will miss you most of all…' _Atemu thought morosely as he took another step closer to the light and what lay beyond it, _'Farewell, aibou.'_

"Pharaoh! Wait! Please!"

The crimson-eyed spirit was suddenly rushed from behind. Arms locked around his waist as a sobbing Yuugi cried into his back. "Yuugi…" Atemu said, turning around and detaching himself gently from the teen.

"Just because I won… just because… it shows we're ready to…" Yuugi hiccuped as he looked up at his darker half, "to separate, doesn't… it doesn't mean that I want us to! I know I'm being selfish, but I want you to stay."

Atemu frowned, "But, my destiny is—"

Suddenly, the spirit had a brief memory of something a good rival, and almost friend had once preached time and again.

"_**Chosen by fate? Get real!"**_

"_**When are you people going to figure out that I focus on the future?"**_

"_**Thanks for the lecture, but I make my own destiny… and I do what I want to do!"**_

Atemu smiled down at his hikari and rested a hand on his shoulder. "My destiny is what I make of it… fate brought us together in the first place, Yuugi. It was because of fate that we have been through so much. So... I suppose that she could wait a little while longer before I return to where I am supposed to be."

Yuugi wanted him here. They all did. And Atemu, as much as he longed to return to his own era, had found something precious and worth staying for in this time. Something he didn't want to leave behind.

Friendship. An odd family consisting of Yuugi, Sugoroku, and the recently adopted Kaiba Mokuba.

Amethyst eyes looked up in shock, "But… you're… you're really going to stay?"

A small smirk graced the once-Pharaoh's face as he walked over to the Sennen Stone, taking out the Puzzle and handing it to Yuugi, "Hai. I am."

Atemu gave a searching look towards Isis, who bit her lip and sighed, "It seems I cannot override your decision. Unfortunately, this is the only chance you will get, my Pharaoh. If you have any desire whatsoever to return to the World of Memory, you must do so now, before the doors close and it is too late. You cannot change the course of destiny. As much as we will miss you, all of us…" here Isis composed her quickly saddening face into one of strength and almost apathy. Her voice had done the same. "You must go."

The doors indeed were already starting to close and the light beginning to dim. Hesitating for a moment, Atemu gazed longingly at them before turning his back completely to them and walking down the stone steps until he was level with the rest of the group. "No offense meant, Isis, but your version of destiny has been proven wrong before. It can be altered. My place is here, with my friends."

The doors shut all the way, never to open again. As they sealed closed, a loud rumbling began to shake the Shrine.

"It's gonna collapse!" Otogi yelled, "We need to get out of here!"

Malik nodded, "This way!"

As the group ran out of the Shrine, no one saw the Sennen Stone break into pieces, falling into the dark abyss below it. The Items fell as well; shining beacons of gold as the glow of the torches hit them for the final time before they descended into the darkness.

There were only five.

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**(1)- Yami no Matsuei manga spoiler: Tsuzuki has a tendency to cause a lot of chaos. As a result of such, he's destroyed the Meifu's Library twice. Once, in the Devil's Trill arc, and another in a short piece where Terazuma and he get into another one of their fights… resulting in shikigami getting sent out… and the brand-new library getting blown to bits. Bad Tsuzuki.**

**(2A)- For those of you a bit confused, the Shrine of the Next World is where the Ceremonial Duel takes place after the Memory Arc. It's also where the Sennen Stone that houses all the Items is held. **

**(2B)- Chijou is the human world. Just like Meifu is another word for purgatory.**

A/N: Mhmm. Yeah. That seems like a good place to cut it off. Cliffie!

Actually, I really dunno what else to write at the moment, and since well… it's kinda late and I really need to work on HWGA before I'm killed. D:

Will Watari escape the terror of the infamous Kaiba Seto's temper? Just which Item didn't fall into the abyss? Will SD27 ever get a regular updating schedule? The answers to these questions and more, revealed in the next chapter of Life After Death!

Ja ne, minna-san!  
SD27  
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_Those who live in darkness wander aimlessly… until they buy a flashlight. :P_


	4. And Life Goes On

A/N: Thanks to those who reviewed last chapter; it means a lot to me considering the surprisingly large amount of hits I received. Enjoy this one, and hopefully we'll be getting into the thick of the plot soon. Bwahaha.

And to my lovely anonymous flamer, I thank you for the complement on my story and chuckle at your immaturity over a review I left on a story that was rather harmless compared to others. You made my day.

(Here's hoping that the page divider will work this time as well…)

DISCLAIMER: SD27 doesn't own Yami no Matsuei or Yu-Gi-Oh!

* * *

_"It's the same… Those who die and those that get left behind… they all feel alone!"-Kurosaki Ichigo, Bleach, Volume 1. (Tite Kubo)_

_

* * *

_

_Life After Death_  
_Chapter Four: And Life Goes On  
__-samuraiduck27_

Konoe-kachou looked over from the projector to the door that had just been slammed into the wall as it was opened. A panicked looking Watari practically flew into the room, hurriedly claiming the empty seat next to Tatsumi. Before anyone could say anything, a certain blue-eyed brunette stormed into the room as well, though with more of a dignified and threatening air about him as his eyes settled on the blond currently trying to ignore everything going on around him.

Tatsumi looked from Seto to Watari before abruptly getting up and moving to another seat. He wanted no part in whatever was going on between the two Kinki operatives at the moment.

"Watari! Kyouji! Where on Earth have you two been? I called this staff meeting over forty minutes ago!" Konoe frowned, glaring at the two, "And I want a good reason. None of those lab excuses this time."

Seto took a deep breath to calm down to a mild anger. He would eventually deal with his partner's lack of understanding that trying to take apart and melt down a computer for a project, then realizing it wasn't his to begin with nor was it made of the right type of metal anyways was not a good trait to have. Especially since now the Gushoshin gods refused to issue him a new one on top of that.

Blue eyes alight with cold, icy anger; Seto kept his stare on the top of Watari's head as he took the seat next to Tatsumi. There would be time to verbally assault his partner later. Right now there was work to be done.

"Well? I'm looking for an answer."

Watari shrugged, fixing a crooked grin on his face as he tried to explain his and Seto's lateness, "We were caught in the middle of something…? We simply just lost track of the time, and plus we didn't even get the memo until about ten minutes ago."

Seto glanced at Konoe. "He destroyed something personal of mine. He ran, and I followed. We weren't in the laboratory when the memo was delivered."

Knowing from a month of experience that that was all he was going to get out of Seto, and after a few decades of learning that Watari would cheerfully try to avoid the subject, the head of the Shokan Division let it pass with a grumble and a heavy sigh. "Fine. As I was saying…"

* * *

An hour later found Watari and Seto heading back to their laboratory. The blond scientist seemed oblivious to the glare trying to burn a hole into his head, courtesy of his irate younger partner, as he hummed a nameless tune underneath his breath.

'_I imagine this is what Tsuzuki gets after he dumps his paperwork on Bon one too many times…'_ Watari thought as he entered the lab, throwing a file full of budget-cutting methods given to the whole staff on a pile full of other folders. Seto sneered in disgust at his partner's organization methods for not the first time, and settled himself in his seat.

He wasn't as angry as he had been a few hours ago, but then again, sitting through a long and tedious board meeting would abate one's temper a bit. He vaguely remembered sitting through them during his mortal life, but details were hazy at best.

'_But one thing I'm completely positive about… they were as bad then as they are now.'_ Seto mused, sighing inwardly as he realized that he would be quite far behind on his self-appointed organizing task now that his means of performing it were now melted and quite beyond repair.

Watari ignored the first ten minutes or so of grumbling, muttered cursing, and foul glares in his direction as he worked on some research for a case of Terazuma and Wakaba's. After fifteen it was just getting ridiculous. It was just a laptop; after all… it wasn't as if Watari had really done some _serious_ damage.

'Then again, with that boy when it comes to any sort of technology…'

Pulling out a clean sheet of paper from a drawer and a pen from the breast pocket of his lab coat, the scientist quickly sketched out a crude rectangular object. This sudden pause in furious typing and shifting through papers made the younger of the two operatives look up from his pile of paperwork and give a not-so-veiled look of curiosity towards his partner.

Suddenly, golden-brown eyes met Seto's own ice-blue ones. "If you could have the perfect computer, Kyouji… what would it be like?"

The brunette glared deeply at his partner, but as usual, had little effect on the man. Was Watari _asking_ to be strangled for asking such a question so shortly after the demise of Seto's own laptop?

When Seto didn't respond, Watari sighed exasperatedly, "Just humor me, will you?"

Not knowing where this was leading, Seto began rattling off a list of details that he wanted in a computer; everything from color scheme to weight to memory capacity and programs he wanted it to compatible with. And just to frustrate the man, Seto threw in some things he knew probably didn't exist. Hell, Watari probably didn't know what half the things were that he had growled under his breath. But the scientist brushed off the cold tone of voice and seemed to be scribbling even faster now, this time what looked like words from Seto's view.

After a moment or two of pen scratching on paper, Seto's curiosity grew to impatience. He was about to ask Watari just what he was doing when the blond… stuck his hand straight through the sheet.

And it disappeared into it.

'_What the hell?'_ thought the brunette, having never seen his partner's special ability at work before.

Seconds later, Watari smirked in triumph, getting up from his seat and marching over to Seto's desk. A thin eyebrow quirked fractionally as Seto frowned, "And just what the hell are you doing?"

Watari didn't respond; instead he whipped his hand out of the paper, and with it came a laptop, silver with a slight blue sheen. Throwing it casually towards Seto, who caught it deftly with a look that could only mean "are you insane?" The blond smirked. "Built to your specifications. I already apologized and whatever. So hopefully now you'll stop acting like a sulking child and cease with the glaring and muttering now that you have your precious laptop back. Seriously… you're a shinigami, not a five-year old."

Seto didn't know what to say. He was torn between berating Watari and, to his horror, thanking the man. Just what was this place doing to him? No one as far as he could recall had _ever_ talked to him in such a manner before. Tsuzuki was the one that had the attitude of a five-year old at times, not him!

"…I was _not_ sulking."

Golden eyes crinkled in mirth as their owner shrugged and turned back to his desk, "Of course you weren't. And I don't spike the coffee with my experiments."

There was no retort after that, to Watari's slight shock. And when his gaze flickered over to the sullen boy in the corner of the laboratory a few minutes later, he noted with amusement that the laptop was being put to good use. Long nimble fingers flying over the keys, Seto's attention was fully focused on the machine in front of him, muttering and glares ceased.

* * *

"How did you do it?"

The sudden question almost made Watari drop the vial of acid he held in his hands at that moment. He turned around and looked at Seto inquisitively, "How did I do what?" he asked, thoroughly confused.

"The paper. The laptop, Watari."

A smile began to form on the blond's face as he remembered the event about two weeks prior; "Ohhh… is someone curious? And here I was thinking you wanted as little as possible to do with me even though we've been working together for the past few months."

Seto glared, "Just answer the question," he said, though the brunette didn't deny his curiosity over the matter.

"It's my special ability. I can give life to inanimate objects and machines for a short amount of time, as well as anything I draw." Watari explained, returning to his experiment and missing the frown that crossed Seto's face.

Muttering came from Seto, "I see. …Interesting. Well, that explains why the blasted thing decided to shut down all of a sudden and blast out music when I didn't even have a sound program running…"

The scientist tried hard not to let the grin creeping up his face be seen. He just hoped that the laptop didn't grow hostile like the water cooler Tatsumi had had to destroy a few years before then. His partner finally seemed to be getting a small respect for him. Best not to let all that work go to waste.

* * *

The next afternoon found the two Kinki operatives working in the lab, as per usual. But, oddly enough, Watari wasn't concocting one of his potions, and Seto wasn't off at his desk in the far corner of the laboratory, trying to ignore the ramblings of his bordering-on-insane partner.

Instead, the brunette had finally gotten fed up with the haphazard filing systems that seemed to work for Watari, but were driving Seto insane, and had taken away and hidden Watari's chemicals. Watari wouldn't get them back until he helped Seto finish re-filing everything.

And well, let's just say that the blond didn't take too well to having his work taken away from him…

"Watari-san…"

The man smirked as he shuffled a stack of papers before setting them off to the side, "Hmm? What's that? You're going to give me back my potions now?"

Seto's eye twitched as he had to swat away another offending creature. "Either call these… _things_… off, or you will never, _ever_, see your so-called, Enma-be-damned potions again." The brunette growled menacingly, grabbing one of Watari's stick figures brought to life and squeezing it between his index finger and thumb in hopes to alleviate a fraction of the stress he was feeling at the moment.

"Now, now, no need to be so mean to the little things. They're rather cute and helpful, after all."

Resisting the urge to throttle his partner as he was doing to the stick figure in his grasp, Seto sighed and continued to use the squirming, yelling thing as a stress-ball. "You're their creator. Of course you would think of them as such… but to the rest of us sane people, they're a menace," a sharp prick on his finger caused him to drop the figure in his hand, "…It bit me. It _bit_ me! Watari-san, your things are hostile. This cannot be a good sign."

Amber eyes rolled in amusement as Watari turned around, "Oh don't be…" The drawings had attached themselves quite literally to Seto, by means of teeth that Watari hadn't drawn on them in the first place, "On second thought, maybe it's a good idea if we get rid of them now."

So, the filing was put on hold for the moment as the two shinigami worked together, for once, to get rid of the feral drawings. Such was the scene that Hisoka was greeted with as he knocked on the glass door of the lab. Watari waved cheerily at the green-eyed teen, while Seto tried to compose himself into a state of dignity, which was hard seeing as he had several small stick-figure people clamped to his arms as well as looking quite disheveled.

Hisoka didn't want to know what was going on. He had learned that it was better not to ask, but just to let it be quite early on in the job. _Especially_ when it came to Watari. "Kachou wants to know why you two haven't reported to his office with the results of your scouting yet."

It was as if a bucket of cold water had been dumped over them. Watari and Seto looked at each other, the thought "Oh shit," running though their heads. Hisoka picked up on the waves of panic and irritation coming from the two shinigami and promptly excused himself after dropping a folder on the table.

"You didn't tell me we had to do a sector check this afternoon, Watari-san." Seto said, grabbing the last of the little demons and chucking them into a box with the rest of them.

The scientist shrugged, "I was so occupied that it totally skipped my mind. Let's see…" Watari picked up a paper from underneath a book on Medieval alchemy, "We're supposed to scout out the lower half of our sector today… mainly Domino City and the surrounding areas. Shouldn't take more than a few hours."

'_A few hours that could have been spent doing something constructive…'_ the brunette inwardly groaned, before nodding and grabbing his blazer. Hopefully, they'd be back before Konoe could notice that they screwed up.

* * *

"Yuugi! Jii-san! I'm home!" Mokuba called as he entered the mansion, his voice ringing off of the walls.

After his brother had died, specific instructions left in his will said that Mouto Sugoroku, if he wanted to, would be who Seto wanted to adopt his brother. In no way, shape or form would the raven-haired boy be sent back to an orphanage. Yuugi's grandfather had agreed to the adoption, and at Mokuba's pleading request, the two had moved into the Kaiba Estate with him.

Mokuba couldn't just leave all the people that worked there without a job, now could he?

Walking into the kitchen, the grey-eyed boy spotted Yuugi cooking something at the stovetop. "Hey, Yuugi!" Yuugi turned around, but the appearance of crimson eyes instead of violet made Mokuba change his greeting, "Oops. Gomen, Atem. I didn't realize it was you."

The once-pharaoh chuckled, "It's quite all right, Mokuba. Yuugi and I are nearly impossible to tell apart from behind."

Mokuba grabbed a soda from the fridge and sat down at on a stool next to the counter, "But you would think that after a few weeks I'd have gotten used to it by now."

Atem shrugged, "You seem to be taking it well, I have to say. You all did, actually. Back in Egypt, housing another, human, soul inside one's body would have been looked upon as some sort of dark magic."

"'Back in Egypt?' You're starting to sound like an old person, Atem." Chuckled Mokuba, before he spotted the clock on the wall and groaned. "I have to leave now…? I swear, I don't know how he did it, managing school and work and Duel Monsters all at the same time."

A small flash of light came from the Sennen Puzzle hanging around Atem's neck, and suddenly Yuugi was standing in his place, muttering about his darker half's horrendous- although slowly improving- cooking skills. Yuugi had noticed with a small smile that Mokuba was beginning to talk more about his brother again. After the car accident, the young Kaiba had been so quiet and withdrawn; he wouldn't speak a word about Seto nor the day that he died and rarely about anything at all, really.

"Honestly, I couldn't tell you how Kaiba-kun did either." Yuugi said, dumping the remains of whatever Atem had attempted to cook down the disposal in the sink, "But he always did. And I'm sure you'll do fine. He must have had real faith in you to leave you in charge of Kaiba Corp."

A frown marred Mokuba's usually cheerful disposition. "He wasn't planning on leaving it to me for a long, long time, Yuugi. …I'm gonna be late. Isono's probably waiting for me in the car. I'll see you later tonight."

* * *

After a few hours of working, Mokuba groaned at the amount he still had left, and the fact that he also had homework on top of that.

_'This is killing me… at this rate, I'm going to end up either failing school or making Kaiba Corp. go broke… I need to get out of here…'_

Quickly saving his files, he grabbed his jacket from the chair next to the door of his office and exited the small room. His secretary looked at the teen quizzically, but didn't say anything as Mokuba punched the elevator button and waited for the elevator to make its way up. This certain secretary had been the last one that Seto had hired, and she vaguely remembered the elder Kaiba brother going out for walks when he needed to clear his head or when the work had finally gotten to him. She assumed that this was what Mokuba was doing at the moment, and a vague smile crossed her face. It wasn't healthy for Mokuba, who in reality was still a child, to be cooped up in an office building all day.

The elevator dinged, and the raven-haired teen stepped inside, catching his secretary's glance momentarily before the doors shut. "Have a nice walk, Kaiba-sama."

* * *

"…Kyouji, will you please come out of spirit form already, people are staring at me like I'm insane."

"Really? And here I was, thinking you already were insane. Genius is just on this side of—"

"Then that would make you less than sane as well, wouldn't it now, Mister Prodigy?"

"…Touché, Watari-san."

The two shinigami had finished their scouting of the suburban areas of Domino City, and were currently investigating the city itself. So far, there had been no incidents, nor anything remotely interesting. Then again, it was the Kinki sector, after all. Nothing really went on around there often.

And as per usual, Seto had opted to stay in spiritual form for the entire time, as he always did when Konoe had them go into Domino. It was too soon after his death, Seto always argued, and he didn't want to be running into anyone that he could have known when he was alive.

And it really irked Seto even more that he wouldn't even be able to tell those who he had known from other people. He couldn't really even remember what he had been like before he died.

Watari had gradually, persistently attempted to draw the moody shinigami out of his shell, and through odd and underhanded methods, the blond had gotten Seto to tell him of the missing gaps in his memory. Watari could relate, as he really couldn't remember anything of his past as well.

"Oh, come on, will you? We're almost done, and I'm hungry. I'll buy you dinner, even."

Seto frowned, although only Watari was able to see it. "Why are you persistent about this?"

Watari shrugged in response, and turned down a side alley. He was sick of getting odd looks from people who thought he was arguing with thin air. Seto followed, "You do know if I get seen by someone—"

The scientist waved Seto's argument off, "Hai, hai… whatever. If you're so worried about it, then disguise yourself or something."

This had to be the dumbest idea Seto had heard in a while. "Disguise myself. How- may I ask- would I be able to do that? It's not like we have anything I could use, you baka."

Sighing, Watari wondered why he had ever tried to make his partner more sociable if all it meant was loosing a sarcastic, ill-tempered person with a thousand or so comebacks and insults for everything and everyone upon the Meifu.

'_I'd hate to know how many enemies he made during his lifetime with that attitude of his…'_ thought the scientist.

"Well, you could probably muss your hair up a bit, and slouch when you walk," Watari offered, watching Seto's scowl grow deeper at the prospect, "Or, and here's an idea, you actually be nice and friendly to people! No one would ever know it was you, then."

Seto refrained from having his eye twitch at the blatant insult and sarcastic tone Watari used."…Do you _want_ me to hurt you?"

"No. But come on, stop being a coward, Kyouji."

Oh, that was it. No one called Seto a coward… _no one_. "You're on."

There didn't seem to be much of a change to the blond shinigami, just a faint ripple of energy around the younger of the two's form. But to anyone else in the alley, it would have seemed as if Seto had stepped out of thin air.

A smirk graced the blue-eyed teen's face. "You said something about dinner, I believe?"

* * *

It was beginning to get dark out, Mokuba noticed, and although he could barely make out the lights of the Kaiba Corp. headquarters building in the distance behind him, the boy felt that he still needed to walk. A grumble sounded from his stomach, and Mokuba realized that he hadn't eaten since lunch at school that day. Come to think of it, he was rather thirsty as well.

Recognizing a small restaurant across the street that he and Seto had frequented, Mokuba quickly checked for traffic once, twice, and a third time- which had become a habit as of late, ever since…

'_Focus on something else… now's not the time to be thinking of that.'_ Mokuba thought to himself, dashing across the street as fast as he could.

Breathing slightly erratically from the quick dash, Mokuba stood for a moment outside the restaurant, glancing inside through the large glass windowpane. It seemed to be pretty packed that evening. Even though he could probably get a table before anyone, being who he was, Mokuba didn't want to cheat other people out of a spot they had been waiting for. He wasn't like his brother in that sense.

Deciding to catch something from a local ramen shop or something on the way back to Kaiba Corp., Mokuba looked around the restaurant one last time before turning away and heading back. At least, that was what he was planning to do, until a duo at one of the tables next to the window, right on the edge, caught his eye.

His breath caught in his throat and for a moment Mokuba wondered if what he was seeing was real.

For there, sitting across from a animated, smiling blond man who seemed to be teasing his companion, was a figure very familiar to Mokuba. The hair may have been unkempt, and the outfit far too casual, but there was no mistaking that scowl nor the posture that screamed irritation. And Mokuba would have bet everything that he owned that the eyes that he couldn't see were a bright, icy blue.

It was his brother.

* * *

A/N: Bwahahahaha. Ahem. I mean, yay for the end of the chapter, yo. I bet you guys really love me at the moment, don't you? (laughs)

Umm… yeah. Dunno what else to say here. Because I'm kind of just like… out of it or something. Hope you enjoyed this one. :D Please leave a review, I love getting them no matter what the content. And concrit on this chapter would be very much appreciated!

Ja ne, minna-san.  
SD27


	5. To Touch, To Remember

A/N: Wow, I'm surprised how many reviews I received last time, and we have a few newcomers as well. Welcome to the story, y'all. :D I got inspired about two hours after I posted the last chapter, and I couldn't help but begin another one. Ehehe?

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything but the plot, and even that's under debate. Aliens could have planted the idea into my head, after all. /sarcasm

* * *

"_There is nothing worth than death, Dumbledore!" snarled Voldemort. _

"_You are quite wrong… Indeed, your failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been your greatest weakness."_

_-Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (JK Rowling)._

_

* * *

_

_Life After Death  
__Chapter Five: To Touch, To Remember  
__-samuraiduck27_

Mokuba wanted nothing more to dash into the small restaurant and approach the stranger he was convinced was his brother. Even though his rational mind told him that Seto was dead and had been for almost six months now, the hope in his heart that had overflowed upon seeing that familiar figure would not be crushed.

'_I'll just go in there and see if it is… but, what if it's not… no, it's got to be!'_

While the boy's mind debated against itself, inside the restaurant Watari's eyes had flickered to the window and saw Mokuba standing outside. The blond smiled at the boy, and across from him, Seto frowned in slight confusion and returned to ignoring his partner.

* * *

"Kyouji, glaring at your plate isn't going to help much." Watari chuckled, turning from the window. Seto, glaring at his partner now, returned to picking at his plate of pasta that Watari had ordered for him when Seto had picked the wrong time to use the restroom. Watari rolled his eyes at his partner's behavior and was about to also return to his dinner when the sound of a cell phone going off interrupted him. 

"It's mine," Seto said gruffly, pulling out his phone, "Kyouji. …Yes, Konoe-kachou. …Watari-san is here with me as well. Alright."

And that was it for the conversation; Watari looked at Seto inquisitively from across the table, and the brunette waved the waiter over and asked for the bill. "Well… what did the chief want?" Watari asked.

"Apparently something urgent's come up. We need to head back as soon as possible."

* * *

Mokuba had been surprised when Watari smiled congenially at him, before returning to conversing with who he thought was his brother. The man hadn't been anyone he recognized, and at first glance Mokuba actually thought that the scientist was a girl for a moment. The boy thought the man seemed nice, though his hope of the figure seated across from Watari that was actually Seto had lessened. His rational mind had finally caught up with him, beating into him the fact that his brother was dead, and even if he wasn't, Seto wasn't the one to randomly skip off of work to have dinner in a restaurant without telling Mokuba of his plans. 

Discouraged and brought back down to reality, the boy sighed heavily and turned to begin his trek back to the Kaiba Corp. building. Not paying attention to his surroundings, Mokuba was surprised to bump into someone a few steps later. Tripping over his feet as he hastily apologized, the raven-haired youth fell onto the ground.

"Gomen! Oh, I'm so sorry, Kid. Didn't see you there."

Mokuba looked up at the same smiling blond man that had been with the Seto-look alike. Warm golden eyes gave him an apologetic look, and Mokuba felt himself grinning sheepishly, "It's okay. I should be watching where I was going anyways."

"Watari-san, are you harassing the locals again?"

The blond, who Mokuba guessed was 'Watari-san', rolled his eyes, "Of course not."

Mokuba saw a hand being thrust into his vision, and the person who that arm belonged to spoke gruffly, "Here. Get up."

Mokuba took the offered hand, looking up and meeting the steely, ice-blue gaze of Seto's. Slightly in shock, the boy stood there, wanting nothing more than to ask the brunette who he was, why did he look so much like Seto? _Was_ he Seto? It would be so much like his brother to fake his death to disappear for a while; he had done it before after all…**(1)**

But nothing would come out of his mouth. It was as if his vocal cords had decided then and there to quit on him. Seto relinquished the grip on Mokuba's hand as soon as the boy had gotten back on his feet. "Next time, watch out, Kid," Seto told him shortly, but with a small hint of something that had to be… teasing, sort of, because Watari's eyebrow raised slightly. The other joined it and eyes widened fractionally when the same hand that was offered to Mokuba moved to ruffle the boy's hair affectionately.

Just like how Mokuba remembered his brother doing it.

Blinking confusedly and glancing at his hand as if it had betrayed him, Seto turned around quickly and stalked off, passing Watari and muttering a "Let's go, everyone's waiting," as he passed. The two left behind stared after him, before Watari looked at Mokuba a bit oddly before following his younger partner.

When the youth realized what was going on, he ran after the two as quick as he could, dashing around the corner that the pair had just turned. "Nii-sama! **(2)** Yamete! Please, Seto, wait!" he yelled.

But they were nowhere in sight.

* * *

The two shinigami ended up teleporting right outside the Meifu's Ministry building from Domino. The younger of the two immediately stalked forward in his usual manner, but didn't get very far as Watari grabbed his shoulder. 

"What." Seto said, eyeing Watari's grip on him. Like Hisoka, the teen had a dislike for physical contact. Which was what made it so odd that he would, in Watari's eyes, actually ruffle the hair of the young boy from the restaurant.

Watari met Seto's gaze head-on, trying to find a hint of something that could help him understand his partner's actions. He doubted that Seto had known the boy, or vice-versa, one of them would have at least reacted. But, as usual, the harsh blue gaze was guarded.

'_He really is just like Tatsumi in some ways…'_ Watari thought. Out loud he said, "Never mind. It was nothing," before releasing his partner, "Come on, the others are probably waiting for us, ne?"

* * *

Watari and Seto had just set foot into the bullpen of the Shokan Division when Terazuma pushed past them and out the door, slamming said piece of wood as he exited. Seto raised an eyebrow before turning to Watari for answers. The blond shrugged in response. "Don't look at me. He's probably fuming over something Tsuzuki started… again." 

Looking around the bullpen, Watari noticed that it was totally empty except for them. Odd, seeing as usually someone was working; if it wasn't Terazuma and Wakaba at their desks in the corner, then it was Tsuzuki and Hisoka on the other side of the room. Or even Saya and Yuma with their constant Pink House catalogue stacks as they giggled over what would look the best on their chosen 'victim' of the week, which varied between Hisoka and at times even Seto or Terazuma. (The latter being chosen at requests from Tsuzuki, whom they never could seem to let down. Too bad Terazuma would never consent to their attempted dressing up.)

"I wonder where everyone could be…" the scientist mused aloud as they made their way over to the briefing room. Seto, as per usual, didn't bother answering.

The mystery was solved once the pair entered the briefing room. Literally everyone but Terazuma had been gathered inside and was seated at the long table. Each of them took their seats at the end of the table, next to Hisoka and Tatsumi. Saya and Yuma waved at the two late arrivals from across the table, and Tsuzuki smiled at them. "What took you guys?" the violet-eyed shinigami asked Watari.

"Just got held back a bit, that's all," the amber-eyed man replied, though his whole demeanor seemed to say 'I'll tell you later'.

Konoe-kachou cleared his throat from the front of the room, "Okay, settle down everyone. Now that Watari and Kyouji have _finally_ made their appearance… We're going to be receiving a few foreign visitors in the next few days," here the shinigamis' interest became peaked. Visitors from other Ministries were few and far between, "Apparently there's a big case that's moved from their section to ours, and we're working with them to close it. I don't have details at the moment, unfortunately, other than direct orders from Enma-sama to cooperate with these shinigami."

"Where are they from?" Tsuzuki asked, "And how many are coming?"

Tatsumi was the one to answer. Adjusting his glasses, he looked at the file in front of him, "These three are from the Egyptian Society of Osiris. The head of their Judgement and Retrieval Bureau as well as the two operatives working closest on this case are the ones scheduled to arrive within the next week or so."

Konoe nodded, "Which means I want you all on your best behavior. That means no fighting between you and Terazuma, Tsuzuki. Wakaba, will you please relay that to your partner as well?" The miko nodded, vaguely wondering where Terazuma had disappeared to. Konoe continued, "Hokkaido sisters, please don't hassle them with your… fashion."

The older man fixed his gaze on Watari next, "Watari, no explosions. I mean it. One 'boom' from that lab of yours and I will be the one overseeing your paycheck. Kyouji, you're in charge of keeping him in line. Kurosaki, that goes double for you and Tsuzuki."

The younger shinigami fixed their older partners with near identical stares seeming to threaten physical harm if Watari or Tsuzuki, respectively, caused their own paychecks to be cut. The Hokkaido sisters smiled at the looks, and Wakaba suppressed a giggle. Seto glanced over towards Konoe. "If we're finished here, may I be excused?"

Tsuzuki took the chance to look at the clock, and with an inner jump for joy, he noticed that it was four o'clock. "All right! Time to go home everyone!" the violet-eyed shinigami said, grinning at the prospect of going home and getting away from the pile of paperwork still sitting on his desk. Both he and Seto got up from their seats, only to be ordered to sit back down by Konoe. Grudgingly, they did so- Seto with a barely repressed glare and Tsuzuki with a groan.

"Now, these people are professionals. The best of their country's department. You guys are gonna have to toe the line as long as they're here, and act like the professionals you're supposed to be instead of a group of children."

'_You've got that right…' _Seto thought, not taking in the fact that Konoe was also addressing him as well.

"Please, you guys. I'm begging you- don't screw this up. This is a big case, and I won't tolerate any slacking."

Konoe dismissed the shinigami, and after a few good-byes, they all headed off their separate ways.

* * *

Taking out his keys from his pocket, Seto unlocked the door to his apartment and stepped inside, kicking his shoes off and hanging his duster in the closet next to the door as he did so. Right away he headed for the kitchen, throwing his briefcase filled with paperwork he had to fill out from his and Watari's sector sweep earlier that day on the table as he passed it. The brunette had a pounding headache; one that seemed to stem from somewhere in the middle of his brain and was pulsing violently. 

Rummaging through one of the cupboards, the blue-eyed teen growled underneath his breath as he realized he had no aspirin. The nearest store was four or five blocks away, and even though Seto could have teleported there, it was a waste of energy. Plus there was the fact that he couldn't keep his mind focused too well at the moment.

'…_Wait. Tsuzuki-san lives in this complex as well, if I remember right.' _

Oh yes, Seto was desperate. Even going as far as to asking one of his coworkers, one of the most nosy and hovering ones to boot, for a few doses of aspirin. Grumbling at his horrid luck, the brunette sighed and headed for the door once more, slamming it shut behind him in frustration.

Maybe not the best action, however. The loud noise grated against his already hypersensitive nerves and made him wince. Tsuzuki better have aspirin, or there'd be hell to pay.

* * *

A sharp rap on the door distracted Tsuzuki. Frowning and wondering whom it could be, the shinigami went to answer it. "Coming!" he yelled. The dark-haired man opened it, and smiled upon seeing Seto standing there, albeit looking more grumpy than usual. "Oh! Kyouji! What brings you here, hmm?" 

"Tsuzuki-san." The brunette greeted with a clipped incline of his head, "I was wondering if you had any aspirin that I could borrow."

Tsuzuki blinked, "Uhh… sure, yeah I think I have some. Come on in and I'll get you some."

Nodding stiffly, the younger shinigami followed Tsuzuki into the apartment and into the kitchen. Seto was highly surprised to see how well kept the place was, seeing as Tsuzuki had the demeanor of a slob. Seto stood off to the side while Tsuzuki looked in a cabinet, before pulling out a white bottle and tossing it to Seto, who caught it easily- though he twitched slightly at the noise of the pills inside hitting against one another.

Tsuzuki noticed the twitch. "Bad headache?" Seto grunted in affirmation as he swallowed two of the aspirin dry, "You want some water for… or not."

Placing the bottle back on the counter, the brunette nodded a thank you to Tsuzuki, "I must be going. Paperwork to do and such, after all," Seto said, before adding, "It's not like Watari-san does any of it anyways."

Tsuzuki grinned and shook his head, "You're going to work yourself to a second death- it's after hours, and I doubt you really want to work on that stuff."

"Someone has to do it. I appreciate the help, now I really must go."

Sighing, Tsuzuki led him to the door and once Seto had left, made his way back to the living room with two cups of sake from the kitchen.

"That kid…" he muttered.

An annoyed voice voiced his agreement, "You're telling me. And I do _too_ do my paperwork…"

The violet-eyed man chuckled, "Of course you do, Watari, now you were saying something about a kid?"

Leaning forward in the chair that he was currently sitting in, the blond frowned. "Yeah. There was this kid, maybe thirteen… possibly even fourteen years old outside the restaurant. He bumped into me and I knocked him to the ground."

Tsuzuki handed one of the cups to Watari, who accepted it with a murmur of thanks. "Nice, Watari. Harass the locals, why don't you." Tsuzuki grinned, making Watari frown.

"That's exactly what Kyouji said… anyways, before I could help the kid up, out of nowhere Kyouji comes and _he_ helps him up."

The dark-haired shinigami put on a false shocked look, "You mean he actually attempted physical contact with someone… voluntarily? Wow Watari, I think you're starting to rub off on him."

"Oh shut up. But the really odd thing was, he didn't just help the kid up… he seemed fond of the boy, I guess you could say. Ruffled his hair and I could have _sworn_ I saw him smile. Next thing you know, though, he's backing off as if the kid burned him or something. It was really weird."

"…Maybe he knew the kid or something. I mean, Kyouji's not one to smile without good reason, kind of like Hisoka. Come to think of it, has the guy ever smiled once since he's been here?"

"Other than a smirk, I doubt it. And I don't think he knew the boy." Watari steepled his fingers, laying his chin on them, thinking, "If he did, there would have been some kind of reaction from the kid. Anything at all. But he looked just as confused as I was…"

"Possible reminder of someone he knew."

Here the blond had to nod, "Yeah, probably." Watari sighed, "Y'know, even though I can't remember much of anything either when it comes to before I died… I can't help but feel sorry for the poor kid. I, at the very least, worked with the Science Department for a decade or two, but Seto… he still looks the same as when he died, and to be stationed in the sector you lived in so short after that…"

Watari looked up at Tsuzuki, "To look at all those faces and not recognize a single one… to think that maybe that one man sitting at the bus stop might be a friend or relative, that woman in the park a sister or old girlfriend… I know how it feels personally, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I at least remember something. He doesn't remember a thing."

Tsuzuki nodded, somber. Watari, for all his cheer and seemingly carefree personality, almost never spoke up about himself, preferring rather to help out his friends with their problems rather than his own. It was a rare thing to hear his friend so serious and morose. "I'm sorry, Watari."

The scientist downed whatever was left of his sake in one long gulp, "Me too, Tsuzuki… me too."

* * *

Stumbling into his apartment once more, the vague thought that Tsuzuki had given him poisoned aspirin crossed Seto's mind. 

'_I swear… it can't get any worse than right now…'_

But as karma likes to be a right pain when you least expect it, the incessant pain pounding through his skull grew in intensity, making the teen hiss as he clutched his head and flopped in an undignified manner onto the small couch in the living room.

"What the fuck is with this?" Seto growled to himself.

He tried to remember when the pain began, trying to figure out what or who could have had some part in agitating him to the point of having such a horrible migraine.

'I was fine during that damn sweep of the city… and dinner… I think it started after I left Watari-san and that kid…'

The blue-eyed teen yelled in surprise, clutching his head as if that sudden thought triggered something inside of his mind. Flashes of images and voices echoed inside his mind and played in front of his clenched-shut eyes.

Two children playing in a sandbox.

Laughter, and smiles, turned quickly to tears and screams.

A gravestone, then another, and another.

A tall skyscraper and a man in a red suit, but the face was totally blurred…

A dragon standing in front of him.

That same dragon being blown to pieces, and a bright, golden light…

Gasping in large amounts of air, Seto dry retched as he found himself kneeling on the ground next to his couch.

What the hell was that? What did it mean? The brunette found himself with a thousand questions running through his mind, none of which he had the answers to. What he did know, however, was that he needed something to drink, his throat seemed raw for some reason.

Spotting a half-full bottle of water sitting on a coaster on the coffee table, Seto reached out a shaking hand towards it, inwardly frowning at how weak he seemed at that moment. The water was cold and soothed his throat; he gulped it down readily before something clicked in his mind.

The water bottle had been sitting there since possibly the night before, in no way should the water be ice cold. Pulling the water away from his lips and holding up the bottle in the fading rays of the sun coming through his window, Seto's eyes widened fractionally as he looked at it.

It was covered in a thin sheet of what was unmistakably ice.

* * *

**1. Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist Kingdom spoiler! When Kaiba leaves Mokuba to his own devices after losing to Yuugi/Yami no Yuugi in the first few episodes, Pegasus's goons come after him with guns, say some shit to him, and Kaiba jumps out a two-story window that is right over an ocean cliff. Said goons think he's dead, report so to Pegasus, while in reality sneaky sneaky Kaiba's actually alive and plotting.**

**2. "Nii-sama") This is Mokuba's name for Seto. It's "big brother" with the utmost respect. The kid really idolizes his brother, you know. And it's just so damn cute. :D**

A/N: Yay me, another chapter done. I'm good, yo. I decided to cut it here, otherwise we'd get into some messy things and it'd end up being a rather long chapter which I really don't want to do at the moment.

We did have some very important parts of the plot established this chapter, however. …They weren't going to come in until later though. D: I hate it when I get ahead of myself.

Please review, as always, and see you all next chapter!

Ja ne, minna.  
SD27


	6. New Case, New Problems

A/N: This chapter was extremely hard to get out due to the case section of this chapter. I don't remember how many times I redid that... Argh. I may go back and reword it later, but for now it'll suffice.

DISCLAIMER: SD27 doesn't own Yami no Matsuei, Yu-Gi-Oh!, or anything within this fic that actually exists and makes money. She does, however, own the OC's presented in this chapter as well as the imaginary Egyptian Society of Osiris.

* * *

"_I-I'm not afraid of dying. …I've always wanted to try dying once."- Kouyama Mitsuki, Full Moon wo Sagashite, Volume I (Arina Tanemura)_

_

* * *

_

_Life After Death  
__Chapter Six: New Case, New Problems  
__-samuraiduck27_

Seto held the bottle in his hand, the ice covering its plastic shell gleaming in the fading sun, making it look more like glass than plastic. It wasn't cold though, and when the brunette ran his thumb over it, he was disappointed to find that the bottle was just that- a bottle.

"But I could have sworn…"

The ice, if there had ever been some, had just simply disappeared. But the question plaguing Seto's mind, along with the notion of whether or not he was beginning to lose it, was how it had gotten there in the first place. His genius couldn't come up with any plausible reasoning, which frustrated him. And with a sudden snap of his wrist, the nearly empty water bottle went flying across the room, the small amount of liquid still inside streaming out only to hit Seto in the face.

Muttering underneath his breath, the blue-eyed teen sighed, wiping the remnants of the water off of him. Something clicked in his mind- a welcome thought.

"At least my headache's gone now… now I can get some work done around here," he said to himself, using the couch behind him as support as he hoisted himself off of the ground. As he made his way around the kitchen: grabbing his briefcase from off of the floor and putting it upon the table, starting up the coffee machine, searching for something to eat in the refrigerator, the brunette's mind drifted back to the few flashes of… something, right before he had found himself of the floor gasping for breath.

'Those people… did I know them? And what was that large skyscraper? I know I've seen it before…' 

But paperwork beckoned to the hard-working young man and soon his thoughts were ones of filing systems, annoying partners, and prefectures of Kyoto rather than scattered memories that were more like a dream than anything.

* * *

"See you in the morning, then," Watari said as he slipped on his shoes, "And remember not to be late; Konoe'll have your head."

Tsuzuki nodded as he opened the door for his friend, "You're telling me. Not to mention Hisoka'll be angry with me as well. I guess I'll have to wait until later for my Cinnapon."

With a final farewell, Watari left Tsuzuki's apartment, heading down the long, empty hallway. The scientist was torn between heading back to his own apartment for the night and going back to the lab to finish off a few experiments he was working on.

"003's waiting for me back at the lab though…" Watari muttered to himself as he headed down the stairs, "Maybe I'll just stop by to pick her up then go home; I did tell her that I would be back."

Deciding on that course of action, there was a small spring in his step as Watari walked. He reached the second floor, and it was there that he paused for a moment. His partner had a room on this floor; the first door on the right, if Watari wasn't mistaken. After a short pause of hesitation, the blond continued on his way out of the building.

Even though Watari was one for forcing social habits onto those like Hisoka and Seto, even he knew that there were probably some times when it was best just to let things alone. And right now he was getting the strange feeling that it just happened to be one of those times.

* * *

_**Bakura Residence, Domino City, Japan- Chijou.**_

It was rather late when Bakura Ryou unlocked the door to his cozy though lonely apartment and walked in. The white-haired teenager and former Item holder was exhausted after a night of hanging out with Yuugi and the others. It seemed that once the whole mess with the Items had been finally finished, there was a lot more time for just having fun and enjoying being a teenager.

Bakura didn't have to feel so alone anymore, isolating himself from anyone attempting to get close to him, in fear of the evil spirit once housed in the Sennen Ring he was burdened with.

Flipping on the lights as he entered his bedroom, the teen suddenly had a chill run down his back. The air was rather still, tense as if someone, or something was there. Making no sign as if he had noticed anything amiss, Bakura calmly threw his jacket and other belongings on his bed before making his way back down the stairs and into the kitchen.

'_Whatever it is… or who… it's following me,'_ he realized as he stopped. Right next to him was a large set of steak knifes; probably the only thing even resembling a weapon in the whole apartment. His hand reached out and quickly drew the closest one to him.

"Whoever you are… come out right now," Bakura said loudly to the seemingly empty room, inwardly thanking whatever higher power there was that his voice didn't betray the panic he was feeling at that moment, "Or else I'll use this on you! I will, you know, I'm… I'm not bluffing!"

'I thought this was all supposed to end when I got rid of that blasted hunk of gold! I hate looking over my shoulder all the time…'

The white-haired teen received no answer; but suddenly the air seemed to lose the tension it had carried before, as if whatever hostile presence that had been there before had just simply vanished.

Or maybe it had just decided that it would be better to bide its time at the moment.

Whatever it was, Bakura felt a cold sense of foreboding come over him.

_'Something's not right here…'_ _

* * *

_

The clock in the laboratory chimed nine just as Seto hurried into the room, unusually distracted and in the middle of tying his tie on. Watari looked as his partner for a moment, confused.

"Did you just come in?" he asked, a smug smile beginning to creep over his features, "Well, who would have guessed. You sure picked the best of days to be late coming in, you know."

Ice blue eyes glared in the blond's direction, "I would need a whole notebook to record how many times _you_ have been late, Watari-san, in the past few months I've been here."

"Ooh… touchy, aren't we?" Watari retorted, shuffling through the files on his desk, "Well, you actually didn't miss anything. Kachou said that the delegates had been delayed by a few hours due to some mission that came up or something or other, so they won't be here until this afternoon."

He received no reply from the brunette, only the sound of fingers clacking on computer keys filled the small silence after Watari spoke. Mentally sighing at once again being ignored by Seto, even though it was the norm for him, he went about doing some paperwork. After all, the boss man said no explosions, but Watari really wanted to test out a new idea of his…

"Watari-san…"

"What? What'd I do?"

"You're thinking about doing something irrational and stupid with the lab equipment again, aren't you." It wasn't a question. Damn the boy for being so observant.

"No…"

"Liar."

Watari frowned, "Oh, so what if I am? It's my stuff after all."

"Pay cuts," was Seto's response. And it just happened to be a good one, because the threat stopped the scientist in his tracks. A slight smirk formed on the brunette's face, he knew he had won.

003 flew into the lab at that point, cutting off whatever retort Watari was thinking up. She fluttered over her owner's head for a moment, before landing on his shoulder.

"Hey girl, where have you been all morning?" Watari asked the little owl, who blinked up at him before fluttering over to Seto and landing on the top of his laptop screen.

The teen glared at 003, "Off. Now," he said, to which Watari chuckled. 003 hooted before flying onto the desk and nipping Seto's hand before circling once more and heading out of the room.

Watari, having had 003 as his only company for thirty-odd years, knew exactly what the diminutive owl was trying to tell them, "She wants us to follow her, Kyouji," he said.

"It's an owl, Watari-san, it can't talk," scoffed Seto.

"Hey, what's taking you guys so long?"

Both shinigami turned to see Tsuzuki at the lab door.

He nodded, "We sent 003-chan to get you two! The shinigami from the other department are here."

Watari smiled, "Oh, so they resolved things that quickly, then?"

"Nope! They had someone else do it for them, I think. But anyways, they want to get started soon, so you better hurry up."

* * *

When Seto and Watari walked into the briefing room, like everyone else, their attention was drawn to the three newcomers sitting at the head of the table next to Tatsumi and Konoe. The younger pair- a young man with spiky, dark brown hair and a woman with dark green eyes narrowed in irritation at the man next to her- were conversing rapidly, and heatedly, in Arabic as their superior sighed and tried to intervene.

Watari was oddly reminded of Tsuzuki and Hisoka for a moment.

The scientist had done a bit of looking into the databases the night before, to learn a bit more about the delegates from the Egypt branch of Meifu, formally known as the Egyptian Society of Osiris. The man in charge of their Soul Retrieval section, as they called it, was Hanadi Farouk, a slightly heavy-set man with the appearance of a man in about his late forties or so.

'_Those files must be highly out of date though…'_ Watari mused, as the physical appearance of the man was a bit different than the picture included with the file Tatsumi had been given as well as the one featured on the database. A large scar marred the man's face, running from forehead to jawline over his right eye. The blond idly wondered what could cause such harm to a shinigami that it would leave permanent disfiguration after the skin had regenerated itself.

He decided though, that he really didn't want to know.

Tatsumi, obviously, was getting a bit tired of the bickering between the pair seated across from him. He turned to the Egyptian seated next to him. "Excuse me, Farouk-kachou, but we'd like to begin the debriefing now."

The man nodded in Tatsumi's direction before leaning over the table and whacking the two younger shinigami over the head, causing them to both quiet down and look sheepishly at their boss. "Behave, you two," Farouk said, his words thickly covered with an Arabic accent, "You told me you'd be on your best behavior. Do not insult the honor of our branch."

The woman turned to Konoe, "I apologize on the behalf of my partner and I for our rudeness… it's just sometimes he doesn't know when to shut up."

"Oh, geez… get over it, will you, Aria?"

Aria ignored her partner, causing him to smirk slightly, thinking he had won whatever argument the two had been having before Watari and Seto had arrived.

Tatsumi looked around the room and took a mental roll call, making sure that everyone who was supposed to be there was. This time, the full office hadn't been assembled, just the Kinki and Kyushu sectors as they were the ones who would be working on the case.

"Now, let us begin the meeting. Why don't we go around and introduce ourselves first," Tatsumi said, "Watari-san, we'll start with you; Konoe-kachou and I have already introduced ourselves."

"Umm… okay then," Watari replied, smiling congenially, "I'm Watari Yutaka, Kinki sector shinigami."

"Kurosaki Hisoka, Kyushu sector."

"Tsuzuki Asato, also from Kyushu."

"…Kyouji Seto, Kinki sector."

The three Egyptians smiled, before introducing themselves as well. "It's surnames first, am I correct? Then I am Farouk Hanadi, Chief of the Soul Retrieval section of the Society of Osiris."

The woman introduced herself next, "Nebet Aria, Valley of the Kings retrievalist."

Aria had to nudge her partner, as it was clear he wasn't paying attention, "Oh. Oops. I'm Djari Salim of the same."

Konoe nodded to Tatsumi, who passed down a pile of folders to everyone at the table while Farouk began to explain the case. "Five millennia ago, Egyptian rulers played a game of great and terrible power. These games were called the Shadow Games, and involved the mutilation of a human soul, along with powers that even a shinigami could never hope to wield. The power of these games threatened to destroy Egypt, as well as the world."

For some reason, Seto felt the urge to laugh at the man, and barely restrained himself from doing so. However, he couldn't keep his remark of "A bit exaggerated, don't you think?" from leaving his mouth.

Watari glanced sharply at his partner, as did the rest of the room. "I assure you, this is no exaggeration, Kyouji-san, was it?" Aria said, "These Shadow Games could only be played with those who had possession of what was called a Sennen Item. There were seven in all, each one holding a unique power of their own as well as the ability to call forth monsters from the Shadow Realm; monsters representing the ugliness and the beauty of a person's soul. In some cases, they were the souls of the person themselves."

Salim entered the conversation as well, "Mind control, seeing into the future, telepathy, judgement of a soul, these are only a few of the powers that the Items held. If given into the wrong hands, well, you could imagine the chaos that would cause."

Farouk nodded, "The pharaoh of that time sealed the magic of the Shadow Games and the Sennen Items away for the last five millennia, until a Japanese student solved the Sennen Puzzle, said to house the soul of the great pharaoh."

Tsuzuki frowned, "The soul of the pharaoh? So that means, his soul went without judgement for that long?"

"Yes, but because it was deemed in a prophecy that he would be needed to save the world once again from the danger of the Shadow Games, our Society let him stay housed within the Puzzle. Though Osiris, if he had wanted to, could have taken his soul to Judgement when the ritual was complete instead of letting the transfer to the Puzzle be completed.

"Anyways, about a month or so ago, the prophecy had finally come to pass. The pharaoh had regained the memories he had lost during his imprisonment, the Sennen Items were ready to be destroyed once and for all, and the Shadow Games had been stopped for good. He got as far as completing what is known as a Ceremonial Duel—"

Hisoka perked up a bit at this part, "A duel?"

"The modernized version of the Shadow Games was turned into a highly popular card game, Duel Monsters. The pharaoh and the one whom he shared a body and consciousness with for the last several years, one Mouto Yuugi, had to duel against one another to see if they were ready to part.

"When Mouto-san won, the pharaoh opened the gate of the Shrine to the Next World."

Watari interrupted, "I've heard of that; it's a gateway into the past, isn't it? A gateway to the world of five thousand years ago, specifically. But, that would mean that the soul of this pharaoh would get another chance at life!"

"Yeah, but apparently the higher-ups figured that after saving the world twice, the guy deserved it." Salim said.

"So what went wrong?" Tsuzuki asked.

"Well, what went wrong was that the pharaoh, after searching for his memories and finally having the chance to return to a life and time where everything was the way he had known it when he was alive, didn't take that chance."

"Well that was stupid." Seto said, "But I really don't see the problem. You were going to let him have a second chance anyways, so why does it matter what time period he chooses to stay in?"

Farouk frowned, black eyes piercing Seto's own ice blue ones, "The problem is, that if he stays in this realm, the Sennen Puzzle stays as well. He cannot exist without it as he himself does not exist in this day and age. And as long as there is a Sennen Item still around, there will always be the chance that someone will use it for the wrong reasons and bring back the Shadow Games."

"Not only that, but we received reports that another Sennen Item survived the collapse of the Shrine of the Next World," Aria sighed, fingering the edge of the manila folder in front of her. "And it just happened to be our luck that it was the Sennen _Ring_."

When five confused looks were the result, Farouk was about to explain when Seto cut him off, "The Ring houses another soul, doesn't it? As well as the power to transfer souls into objects."

"How did you know that, Kyouji?" Konoe asked, glancing at the teen.

Confused to that himself, but not letting any of that emotion show on his face, Seto replied, "I… I think I must have read it somewhere."

'_Honestly, I don't know… how did I know that, anyways? This stuff is complete bullshit anyway. The souls in the Items I'll take, soul transference has happened before… but monsters and manipulation over shadows?'_ Seto's gaze flickered towards the Secretary at the end of the table, _'Only a Kagetsukai can control shadows like that, and Tatsumi-san's the only one other than his sensei. It's not something any mortal could do.'_

"…To send a Retrievalist out, but by then the Items had already crossed the border. We traced them back to Japan; in Domino City, to be exact. It's not in our jurisdiction anymore, so we ask that you please work with us to collect these two for Judgement."

When Seto bounced back out of his thoughts, he realized that he had missed a good chunk of the conversation, though he would never admit that to anyone. Watari though, he noticed, had taken a good amount of notes in the ledger he usually carried around. Seto made a note to steal it and look through it later.

* * *

Later that night, the buzzing of the intercom on Kaiba Mokuba's office desk woke him from the nap he had been taking. Rubbing his eyes sleepily and vaguely wondering what time it could be, the pre-teen pressed the receiving button of the small machine.

"Hai…? What do you need, Masahide-san?" Mokuba yawned, waiting for his secretary's answer.

"You have a call on line one, Kaiba-sama; I believe it's from the Estate."

"Thank you, patch them through, please?"

"Of course, Sir."

The pleasant, calm voice of Mokuba's secretary was replaced by a small amount of static before Yuugi's rushed, panicked tones filled the large office. Senses still slightly hazed by sleep, Mokuba interrupted Yuugi.

"Whoa, whoa, hold on. What's going on, Yuugi?" Mokuba asked, a feeling of dread beginning to worm its way up his spine.

_'Yuugi's almost never this panicky… I wonder what's happened.'_

"Mokuba… it's Jii-chan. He's… he's in the hospital."

* * *

A/N: Sorry for such a slow update! I've actually had this done for a while… just never uploaded it. Why, I don't know. And then fanfiction dot net had to go and be stupid and not let me upload anything.

Ah well, at least it's done now. Yaaaay!

Reviews and constructive criticism are welcome as always; I would really love some feedback on this… for some reason I don't think I'm getting the characterization on some characters down too well. It's annoying me a bit.

Ja ne, minna-san! Until next time!  
SD27


	7. Ghosts of Lesser Humans

DISCLAIMER: SD27 doesn't own Yami no Matsuei nor does she own Yu-Gi-Oh!, they belong to their respective creators and the companies who also have copyrights to them.

Note on dialogue: _**'Sennen Spirit talking through a mental link'**_

A/N: See notes at bottom for creative liberties taken with the Yami no Matsuei series.

* * *

"_And if it comes to murder, don't tell and we won't ask  
You how you sleep at night__. When the lights go out,  
You're all alone with the ghosts of lesser humans  
Whose lives you've split to suit your own."  
_

_-"Don't Tell and We Won't Ask," Thrice._

_

* * *

_

_Life after Death  
__Chapter Seven: Ghosts of Lesser Humans  
__-samuraiduck27_

"It's most likely a cardiovascular problem, from what we can gather due to your grandfather's medical history, but we're going to have to run some more tests just to be sure."

Yuugi sighed, gaze firmly resting on the small room in the intensive care unit where his grandfather was resting, "I see… thank you."

The doctor flipped through his notes, "Unfortunately, our head cardiologist is on vacation for the next two weeks and we're a bit short-staffed; our team is more than capable of taking care of your grandfather, but we've sent in for a replacement who'll be here within the next day or two."

Another sigh and mumble came from the teenager, but the doctor wasn't fazed by it. Yuugi was obviously preoccupied with thoughts of his jii-san. With a scratch of his head and a sigh of his own, the doctor took his leave. Yuugi stood there for a few moments, mind replaying what the doctor had told him.

"Sensei," Yuugi said as the doctor stepped out of the room where his grandfather had been rushed to upon entering the hospital, "What happened to my grandpa? Is he okay? Can I see him?"

_The doctor sat down on the bench next to the teen, "I'm afraid your grandfather suffered what seems to be a stroke, Mutou-san."_

"_A… A stroke? Are you sure?" _

"_Hai, Mutou-san… we figure that a blood clot formed originally in his heart was small enough to travel up into his brain and cause it. While this may not sound like much comfort, if the clot had stayed in the heart instead of travelling up, this might have happened sooner and before anyone could have found him. It's both fortunate and unfortunate that he happened to be driving at the time, and after talking to the EMT that brought him in, he apparently hit a guardrail and luckily only suffered from a few bruised ribs and a minor concussion."_

"_So… he'll be all right, won't he?"_

"_Mutou-san," the doctor said after a moment, "At your grandfather's age, a stroke, however minor it may be, is never a good sign. Neither is the concussion and bruised ribs. And with his frequent visits in and out of the hospital as of late…_

_We're going to run a chest x-ray to see the extent of the damage from the crash as well as an MRI and CT scan to get a glimpse of his heart and make sure he doesn't have any severe brain damage, though we cannot be sure of that until he wakes up. However, with your grandfather's history of heart trouble, and the fact that the clot originated from his heart to begin with, it's most likely a cardiovascular problem…"_

"Yuugi! Yuugi!"

Turning violet-colored eyes to his left, the duelist saw Mokuba running down the hall towards him. The boy skidded to a halt in front of Yuugi; his breath coming in short pants. After seeing the look on Yuugi's face, Mokuba frowned and took a seat on the chair next to him, looking up at his foster brother. Admittedly, Mokuba would never claim to be as close to Yuugi's grandfather as Yuugi himself, but he was still close to the older man, and was quite worried. Mokuba didn't want anything happening to his new family. He couldn't bear losing another person close to him, not after…

'It's probably nothing to what he's feeling at the moment, though.' He thought, gaze resting on Yuugi, his mind diverted from other worrisome thoughts.

"Is he going to be okay?" Mokuba asked, "What did the doctor say?"

He didn't get an answer right away; the violet-eyed teen in front of him was seemingly wrapped up in his thoughts. Mokuba noticed this; right after the car accident with his brother, he too had been the same way. Offering comfort in the only way he could think of, the boy hopped in front of Yuugi with a smile on his face.

"Don't worry about Jii-san, Yuugi. He'll be fine! He's strong, what with surviving getting his soul captured and all. _Just_ as strong as my brother was. And he's not going to let a little thing like… like… uhm, what does he have again?"

Yuugi chuckled, offering Mokuba a half-hearted smile, "I don't know, Mokuba. But we have to hope for the best."

* * *

"So wait, let me get this straight… they're not really going to be doing anything?"

Watari almost laughed at the look of perplexed annoyance etched onto his partner's face, "That's right. We're in charge of the Chijou part of this case, while the Retrievalists are going to be manning the research and supposedly the weaponry portion. Something about fighting with magic and games… how odd. Fascinating, though."

Seto voiced a scoff after Watari's last statement, along with a few muttered words as the brunet returned to flipping through the scientist's notes from the meeting. A couple things here and there sparked his interest, and Seto committed those to memory before moving on to the case file that he got.

Watari was also looking through his own copy, noting how thorough the Society of Osiris was with their histories.

'Everything from what diseases he had a child to who his friends are is listed in here… if only the Meifu's computer system could handle such extensive research into our catalogues. Maybe I'll make a note to Tatsumi about that. It's a perfect excuse to order a whole new set of computers for the Shokan… wouldn't want to be lagging behind other Divisions, would we, Tatsumi-san?'

While the golden-haired scientist was scheming to himself off in his corner of the laboratory, Seto was beginning to get a headache from reading his partner's horrid handwriting, or so he surmised. Moving from the notes to the neatly typed out sheets of paper within the folder, the teen found that his headache was only getting worse.

'I probably just didn't get enough sleep last night or some trivial reason for that matter…'

Reaching for his cup of coffee, Seto drank a mouthful before choking and spitting it out. The spray landed on the birdcage in the corner, and the various birds inside voiced their complaint loudly. Watari frowned and got up from his seat, wondering what was wrong with his partner.

"Kyouji, are you all right?"

Seto swatted away the hand that was reaching out toward his shoulder, "Perfectly fine, Watari-san. Just… fine. I don't know what came over me. Now if you'll excuse me."

Amber eyes crinkled in amusement at the slight flush of pink creeping up Seto's face. Oh, that had to be embarrassing! Once he had departed the room though, Watari looked at the cup of coffee that had caused such a little outburst.

"Now that's strange," he said, noting that the Styrofoam cup was cool, even cold to the touch, "He just filled this up ten minutes ago, if even. And given that this type of material is highly endothermic, it should be at least decently warm."

003 poked her head out of her human's mess of hair, peering down at the cup before back at Watari, as if saying that something was up. Watari nodded, "You're absolutely right, 003. I think we might have to watch Kyouji a bit closer, wouldn't you say?"

* * *

Tsuzuki sighed as he flipped through the pages of another book on demonology, "Why don't we just ask Watari what kind of demon it is, 'Soka? He's bound to know…"

"I told you, don't call me that!" Hisoka frowned, "And in case it slipped your mind, Watari-san's busy with a case of his own."

The pair in charge of Kyushu was sitting at one of the tables in a reading room of the Meifu Library. Both Gushoshin had been very reluctant to let Tsuzuki in, what with his track record of destroying the place, but Hisoka had reassured them that he would keep his partner in line.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. But still… this is boring! I'd much rather do paperwork than search through these books," Tsuzuki frowned, looking with undisguised boredom at the text he was skimming.

A small smirk crept up the younger of the pair's face, "Well, if that's what you'd rather be doing…"

Tsuzuki's eyes got wide, "I didn't really mean it, Hisoka! Looking through these books is _much_ better than going back to the office and writing line after line after line…"

"…Just shut up and start reading."

Tsuzuki still seemed in a daze, though. "…after line after line after line…"

Eyebrow twitching at Tsuzuki's idiocy and the despair rolling off of him in waves as he recalled _exactly_ how much paperwork he had yet to finish (most of it from before Hisoka came to the Shokan Division), the young empath was seconds away from hurling a particularly heavy book at Tsuzuki when the door to the reading room opened. Watari looked at the scene quizzically for a moment, "Uhm… hey Bon. What's wrong with Tsuzuki?"

Hisoka turned to the scientist standing in the doorway, "Unresolved paperwork issues."

Watari nodded his head, understanding completely as he himself had the same problem every once in a while, "Have you seen Kyouji anywhere? He disappeared a little while ago, and the Retrievalists want to fill us in on a few things before we head down to Chijou tomorrow."

The empath paused for a moment before answering, "I don't think I've seen him, Watari-san. I'd try the historical section, though."

"Oh…" Watari's slightly crestfallen look accompanied this statement, and Hisoka shrugged slightly, as if saying "what do you want me to do about it?"

"After line after line after line…"

"Oh shut _up_!" Hisoka growled, launching a volume of _The Otherworldly Encyclopedia of Demonology_ at Tsuzuki with dead-on accuracy. Watari, feeling it an appropriate time to leave, did so while the Kyushu pair were busy.

* * *

_**Bakura Residence, Domino City, Japan- Chijou**_

"Stay tuned for the eleven o'clock—"

Bakura Ryou yawned as he shut off the television in front of him, exhaustion creeping up on him all of a sudden and telling him it was time to go to bed. He had school in the morning, after all, and if he didn't get his sleep, he'd end up miserable and cranky the next day.

'_Let's see… I've got a math test tomorrow, I know that much. Did I do the translations for English class? I hope so… eh, I could always do it during lunch if not.' _

Ryou headed up into the bathroom, turning the sink faucet on and grabbing his toothbrush. Mind still preoccupied with thoughts of the next day's routine, the boy almost choked on both toothbrush and toothpaste when the image in the mirror in front of him shifted into a familiar, similar version of himself. Coughing and gasping for air, Ryou glanced back up into the mirror only to see not his own soft brown eyes staring back at him, but harsh red ones crinkled in sadistic mirth at the boy's obvious fright and confusion.

'_No… not again… no… NO!'_

All Ryou could do was stare in horror, slowly backing away from the mirror as the reflection grinned maliciously at him. Ryou couldn't take it anymore, how could this have happened? The Sennen Items were gone now, save Yuugi's Puzzle… the Ring was destroyed, and he himself watched the Shrine collapse and the Items fall into the abyss!

Yet the Spirit of the Ring was a conniving one, and he had no intention of leaving so soon, not while the Pharaoh lived on and there was revenge to be had and a world to see fall to ruin… no intention of leaving at all.

The Spirit of the Ring sent his host a mocking wave as his features began to meld back into Ryou's own in the mirror. Lunging forward in frustration and anger, Ryou punched the glass hard enough to crack it, hoping to somehow hit him. Deep, highly amused laughter rang in his ears as he pulled his hand away, cursing under his breath at his stupidity.

"I'm… I'm not afraid of you! I'm not going to let you use me anymore! You hear me?" Ryou yelled up into the air, voice growing stronger with each word, "I am not your puppet anymore! I don't know what you want, but you better leave me alone or so help me…"

"**And what will you do, my host? Hmm? Are you going to go rat me out? Who's going to believe you… you have no proof that I exist except for in your own mind, after all." **

The Spirit of the Ring's voice grated in Ryou's ears, he knew this feeling well, and knew that what he spoke was true. For the Spirit wasn't speaking out loud, but rather through the mental link between them that only the Ring could grant.

'_I've got to find Yuugi… before it's too late!'_

With that thought, Ryou ran down the stairs and bolted out of the house, trying to get as far away as possible. And oddly enough it worked, much to the Spirit's chagrin. It had taken him all the strength he possessed to save himself from certain doom and to get back to his former host, and while he could have forcibly put the Sennen Ring on Ryou as he had done once before, it was just not a possibility at that moment.

And so he sat brooding within the confines of the Ring, wondering if he had shown himself too soon, and wondering where his new sense of defiance of Ryou's had come from. He would have to crush it once more if he was ever to succeed in his plan to take the Sennen Puzzle and destroy Atem once and for all.

The Spirit of the Ring chuckled to himself, things didn't always go easily nor exactly as planned for him, it seemed. "Well, I did always enjoy a bit of a challenge…"

* * *

Watari sighed as he paced around the third floor of the library, checking every row for his missing in action partner. Finally, after a good half-hour of searching, he found the brunet hiding in a far-off corner with a pile of hieroglyphic inscribed tomes and parchments.

"About time I found you! I've been looking for you ever since you stormed out," Watari huffed as Seto glanced up at him, "What was that all about, anyways?"

Avoiding the question, Seto muttered to himself, "Damn Kurosaki… I told him to keep his mouth shut."

Watari pushed his glasses up in a faint imitation of Tatsumi and sighed, "Now don't go off on a tangent on Bon. We're partners, Kyouji, and it's a bit hard to work a case when one of us goes and runs off on his own half the time."

Seto quirked an eyebrow at his partner, and shook his head, "I found your notes were lacking in details of the Sennen Items, and since they're magical artifacts I took the liberty of researching them myself."

"…Or you could have just waited until we got our individual briefing from the Retrevalists who probably know a lot more about them than any of these books could tell you," Watari smirked, letting the insult about his notes not get to him.

Seto frowned at the amber-eyed man, who just smiled in return before picking up one of the parchment scrolls, "…Can you even read this?" Watari asked.

"Some of it… there's a lot I don't know but a few symbols make sense to me," Seto sighed, picking up a book from next to him and throwing it at Watari, ignoring the headache pulsating against his forehead that three aspirin couldn't even abate, "Then again, a key also comes in handy, but it's just a lot of work to go one symbol at a time, so I'm trying to figure out a way to program the symbols into my computer and make a translation from that to Japanese, at least a rough one."

Watari nodded, "Like the Demon Language converter we have on the mainframe in the Lab, right?"

"Precisely. But what the problem is, is that the time of the Nameless Pharaoh is unknown, all that's known is that it happened between five or so millennia ago, and there were a few versions of writing back then, so it could be Old Egyptian, Middle Egyptian, or Enma knows what… so I have no idea what dynasty to look at to get a comparison off of to read this pile of garbage."

Seto ran his hand through his hair before picking up another scroll and glancing at it while typing away furiously on the keyboard. Watari was surprised at how much information Seto was sharing with him, as well as the fact that the boy hadn't insulted him through all of that, and even more… was actually admitting his frustrations and shortcomings to him. It was a bit uncomfortable for the scientist… what was he supposed to say to that?

'_Five hundred yen says that if I try to say something reassuring he'll bite my head off…' _

After what seemed like ten years of an uncomfortable silence, Watari took his chances and yanked Seto up off the chair by his arm. "What the hell do you think you're doing, Watari-san," growled Seto in response to the treatment he was receiving.

"We're going to our briefing, that's what. You can't take on the whole world on your own, you know, and as much as you may want to believe it, you don't know everything," Watari said, still dragging the brunet by the arm. Seto was caught off guard by his partner's seriousness, "Now let's go catch us a Pharaoh!"

Seto sighed internally before yanking his arm away and following Watari out of the library, _'Should have known better. Since when is that bumbling idiot ever serious…'_

_

* * *

_

_**Domino City General, Room 413- Chijou**_

The next afternoon found Mokuba dozing in a chair and Yuugi organizing his dueling deck for the hundredth time in his grandfather's hospital room. Both boys had taken the day off of school to stay at the hospital, waiting anxiously for him to wake up. Yuugi glanced sidelong over at his grandfather for the tenth time in as many minutes, and Atem, watching through Yuugi's eyes, sighed and opened up the mental link that ran between the two.

'**I know how difficult this must be for you, Yuugi… but the healers are doing everything they possibly can at the moment. Why don't you rest and I'll take over for a while.'**

Yuugi smiled at Atem's reference to the doctors being healers; some habits just weren't going to change with a five-thousand year old pharaoh, and that was one of them. _'Thanks, Atem, but I want to be here when Jii-chan wakes up.'_

'**You haven't slept all night, Yuugi… take a rest inside the Puzzle for a bit and if he begins to stir, I'll wake you right up, okay?'**

'_I guess that'll be okay, just promise me if anything happens you'll get me up right away? No pulling any of that "for your own good" stuff?'_

Yuugi could sense Atem's hesitation before he agreed to it; Atem had an odd idea sometimes of what was in Yuugi's best interests, and he could be overprotective sometimes. Not just because they shared a body, but rather because they regarded each other as family. With a flash of golden light, Atem took over and Yuugi's spirit replaced his in the puzzle. Crimson eyes looked around the room and focused on Mokuba on the couch, muttering in his sleep. Atem got up and stretched Yuugi's cramped up muscles as a result from sitting in one position all night long before heading on over to the couch and waking Mokuba up.

"Hnnn… wha?" Mokuba mumbled, slowly waking up, "Mornin' Atem… where's Yuugi at?"

"It's afternoon, Mokuba, and he's taking a rest right now. Why don't you go down to the… cafeteria? Yes, the cafeteria and get something to eat. You've been sleeping for quite a while now."

Yawning and stretching, the boy got up, "How's Jii-san doing?"

Atem frowned, "He still hasn't woken up yet. Yuugi's very worried… he might not say it, but I could feel the nervous energy coming off him in waves through the link. I couldn't get a proper rest myself with that going on."

Mokuba frowned, but before he could say anything the door opened and the doctor from the night before stepped into the room. Luckily for Atem, his eyes were focused on the chart in his hand, so he was able to switch with a very groggy Yuugi without notice. Another doctor was with him, one that neither of the boys recognized.

"Good afternoon, Mouto-san, Kaiba-san," he smiled, "We've got the results of the chest x-ray back, and we're happy to say that there will be no lasting damage to your grandfather from the car crash. A few of his ribs are merely bruised, as we had suspected, and there seems to be no damage to any of his organs. Bed rest should take care of that portion on its own."

Yuugi and Mokuba both smiled and visibly relaxed at this news, it was at least something good to hear after a night of worrying. "That's great news, Sensei!" Yuugi said, "And what about the other tests…?"

The doctor nodded, "We wanted to make sure there was no damage to your grandfather that would interfere with the testing, so we have him scheduled to have those done in about an hour or two. But seeing as our replacement doctor arrived earlier than expected, I'm handing the case over to him and the rest of the cardiology team and they will take it from here."

Both boys looked to the other man who had accompanied the doctor into the room. Silver eyes peeking out from platinum hair and frameless glasses regarded each of them in turn, seeming to read all about them in one instant, which put both of them a bit on edge. Tall and imposing, this man just had the air of someone you did not want to cross. He smiled at them, which made Yuugi and Mokuba relax slightly. After all, this man was a doctor, and apparently a good one if other hospitals sent for him.

"My name is Muraki Kazutaka," he said, his smooth voice having almost a soothing quality to it, "It's nice to meet you."

* * *

**A Note about the Yami no Matsuei series: It's never specified what kind of doctor Muraki is in the series nor any type of article I can find online, so for all intents and purposes of this story, he's a cardiologist. :)**

A/N: So yeah… this story took a backseat for what… two YEARS? I feel incredibly horrible for doing that to all of you, you have no idea. But two grades, high school, college, two plays, two computers, and two jobs and a boyfriend can make one forget about some things sometimes. I deeply apologize to you guys for that…

Ja ne, minna,  
SD27


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